Some pictures say 1,000 words. The image above says where hundreds of youth were detained by San Diego Police last year for curfew violations. City Heights, as you can see, got the most attention.
I created the map using ZeeMaps.com and curfew enforcement data from the San Diego Police Department. The data includes the locations of 1,763 youth who were detained by police in 2009 for violating the city’s curfew policies. The map’s color scheme uses the following date reference: (green is January through April, blue is May through August, and purple is September through December). You can find similar data here.
Compared to other parts of the city, the map shows City Heights had the largest density of curfew violations. The downtown, southeastern neighborhoods, San Ysidro and Ocean Beach also had a higher number of violations than the rest of the city. (Not all the arrests are pictured in the map.)
So why did police detain the most youth in City Heights?
Assistant Chief Boyd Long said police noticed a rise last year in the number of youth hanging around Highland and Landis Park and 24-hour restaurants nearby. Police responded with curfew sweeps more often, resulting in more detentions.
Long said the citywide spread of curfew enforcement hasn’t always concentrated on City Heights, and southeastern neighborhoods used to be more active. If youth get the enforcement message in City Heights, Long said he expected the numbers would decline there.
So here’s a question for 2010: Do you think police should focus their attention on curfew enforcement elsewhere? Let me know what you think by posting in the comments section.
— KEEGAN KYLE