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A youth curfew is no longer on the table in Raleigh.
City Council member Christina Jones told The News & Observer on Wednesday that the council had come to a unanimous agreement to drop the idea.
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Mayor Janet Cowell and other council members spoke in favor of a curfew shortly after the events of the Fourth of July, in which thousands of young people gathered at Brier Creek and Glenwood South resulting in half a dozen shootings and dozens of arrests.
Initially, Raleigh police told the council that it was mostly underage youth participating in those surges of people and called them “teen takeovers.”
But Jones said most of those arrested ended up being over 18 and many weren’t even from Raleigh.
She said numerous residents raised concerns around how a curfew would work and about it unfairly punishing Raleigh’s youth.
“It came at a moment when we were at crisis,” she said. “But over the summer we heard loud and clear about the questions that the community had that we can’t answer.”
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The council delayed voting on the proposed curfew on Sept. 15 in order to hold a community input meeting at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 12, at the Five Points Center for Active Adults on Noble Road.
That meeting will still happen, but it will now focus on how the city can address concerns around youth crime and youth spaces rather than a curfew, Jones said.
Council member Corey Branch, who had previously spoken in favor of the curfew, told The N&O on Wednesday that after hearing from organizations in the community, council members expressed their opinions against the curfew to each other individually.
There was no closed meeting or vote, he said.
“A curfew was just a tool,” he said. “It was never a complete answer.”
After hearing from the community about the curfew, he said he agrees the city should focus on youth programming and other solutions.
Jones said she hasn’t spoken to Police Chief Rico Boyce — the curfew’s main proponent — about dropping the idea but said that’s part of why the October meeting is happening: to discuss other options.
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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
This story was originally published September 16, 2026 at 4:47 PM.