By Reid Forgrave
The Cincinnati Enquirer

SPRINGFIELD TWP. - At Brentwood Bowl on Winton Road, Alicia Vodde, like many business owners in this urbanized township, is sick of teenagers creating trouble when they're supposed to be in school.

One afternoon last year, Vodde, day manager at the bowling alley in one of Ohio's largest townships, took a beer away from a 15-year-old who was cutting school, and then she kicked him out.

Most kids behave fine, Vodde said, only coming to the bowling alley after school or on off days.

"But the kids who are expelled, usually it's because they're a troublemaker and they're destructive," Vodde said. "If these kids aren't in school, they shouldn't be out here."

In response to an increase in daytime petty crimes like burglaries and vandalism and an increase in truant, suspended or expelled youths hanging out at local businesses, leaders in Springfield Township are considering a measure that a handful of other municipalities in the Greater Cincinnati area already use: a daytime curfew.

The same principle that dozens of Cincinnati-area municipalities use to keep kids off the street during the night is viewed as a tool for daytime problems, too.

"If you're not allowed to go to school because of your behavior, you shouldn't be allowed to hang out on the streets and do whatever you want," said township Police Chief David Heimpold.

The daytime curfew ordinance proposal sprang from neighborhood and departmental staff meetings in the township the past 11/2 years. Other proposals from the meetings intend to ban pit bulls in the township and allow township officials to remove streetside basketball goals that are deemed a traffic hazard.

"These are all concrete things we're doing to make this a better place to live, to increase property value and to make a stand on what's right," township Trustee Joseph Honerlaw said at a Springfield Township meeting a week ago.

The daytime curfew ordinance, which will be voted on within the next two months, would prohibit youths under age 18 from being in a public place on school days between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. The ordinance would grant exceptions in emergency situations, to students in work-study programs, and to home-schooled students.

First offenses get warnings. On a second offense, parents are fined $100, a third offense, $200.

Law enforcement officials say daytime curfews are, more than anything, just another tool police officers can use. If a youth is hanging out on the street after being kicked out of school, the daytime curfew ordinance is the only way police officers can sweep the kids off the street.

"We've had fights break out," said Michael Hinnenkamp, Springfield Township administrator. "We've had property damaged. We've had kids hanging out in front of businesses, and the business owners don't like that. It's not something that's too widespread, but it's clearly a problem. This will be a great tool for us."

Still, police that have the daytime curfew laws say they rarely use them, but that they deter kids from hanging out during school hours.

Asked about a daytime curfew ordinance that the village of Fairfax adopted in 2000, Fairfax Police Chief Rick Patterson said he couldn't even find a copy of the law.

"That shows you how long it's been since we've used this thing, not but a couple times in total," Patterson said.

The ordinance was enacted when the village started seeing lots of kids - either skipping school, calling in sick or suspended from school - out on the streets or hanging at restaurants during school hours. Thefts and other petty crimes were on the rise, too.

"We hardly have any thefts during the daytime now," Patterson said. "As far as breaking and enterings during the day, it's zero."

The city of Reading adopted a daytime curfew in 1996 with one of the area's most strict curfew policies: up to a $100 fine for the first offense; up to a $250 fine plus eight hours' community service for the second offense, and up to a $500 fine, 40 hours' community service and 30 days in jail for a third offense.

Scott Inskeep, superintendent of Reading Community City Schools, said the law - though rarely used - has brought great results because it has teeth.

"You'd hope you never have to use it, but if you need to, it assures you can keep these kids off the street," Inskeep said.

A spokesman with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio said the ACLU is against any youth curfews because curfews interfere with parental autonomy.

"This seems to create a presumption of criminality against kids just because they're kids," said Raymond Vasvari, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio office in Cleveland. "Whether or not their kids are on the streets is a matter the parents should decide."

In Springfield Township, two school districts - Mount Healthy City School District and Finneytown Local School District - will be affected by the ordinance.

One Springfield Township youth who will be a freshman at Finneytown High School this year said the ordinance wouldn't discriminate against kids. In fact, it will help them, he said.

"It's the bad kids who go out and cause the trouble, so they're the only ones who'd be affected," said Gabe Tenbosch, 14. "And I don't hang out with them anyway."

A 15-year-old girl who lives in Fairfax, which has the daytime curfew, said some kids think the daytime curfew is a bigger deal than it really is.

"It should be enforced more around our school area, not so much in Fairfax," said Haley Fritz, a 10th grader at Mariemont High School. "If kids are skipping school, they tend to stay near the school property, go to McDonald's."

Springfield Township officials also stressed the ordinance would not discriminate against youths.

"We're not going to arbitrarily pull over kids just because they're kids," said trustee Gwen McFarlin. "We'll only be pulling them over if we know they're (expelled or suspended) or if they're creating trouble. It's really a fabulous tool. It's a tool to help our kids, and a tool to help our parents be more accountable."

E-mail rforgrave@enquirer.com