The city voted against the proposed juvenile curfew and parental responsibility ordinance Thursday evening.

The following is Police Chief Brian Childress’ response to the decision:

“I respect the decision of Council. But in saying that, I have a responsibility to protect and ensure the safety of our city. As I have stated in all the community forums, our hope was to have in place a local ordinance that began with a warning followed by a program aimed at education and behavior change. Our hope was to have an option better than the state juvenile curfew. Without a local ordinance, we have a duty to follow state law regarding both juvenile crime and any parental neglect that results in juvenile crime.”