Mayor Brandon Johnson will veto a measure approved by City Council on Wednesday that would have given Chicago’s police superintendent the power to call a “snap” curfew and order minors to disperse from an area within 30 minutes.
Alders voted 27 to 22 in favor of the curfew, a margin that wouldn’t provide the 34 votes needed to override the mayor’s veto. The curfew vote reflected a changing Chicago City Council, one that has distanced itself from the days of rubber-stamping the mayor’s wishes and has instead become more antagonistic. The last time a Chicago mayor vetoed an ordinance was in 2006, when then-Mayor Richard M. Daley nixed the “big box law” that would have forced large retailers like Walmart to pay their workers higher wages.
“I will veto this ordinance because it is counterproductive to the progress that we have made in reducing crime and violence in our city,” Johnson said at a press conference following the council meeting. “It would create tensions between residents and law enforcement in a time when we have worked so hard to rebuild that trust.”
Ald. Brian Hopkins, whose 2nd ward encompasses parts of the Gold Coast and Streeterville, first floated a proposal earlier this spring for a downtown curfew as a means to address large gatherings of young people, known as “trends” or “teen takeovers,” where violence had occurred. At least two of the social media-fueled events this year have had shootings occur. In March, a 15-year-old was hospitalized after he was shot and a 46-year-old tourist was shot in the arm.
Hopkins later revised the ordinance so it would allow police to call snap curfews not only downtown, but anywhere in the city. The citywide curfew is currently set at 10 p.m.
In May, Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) and Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) led fifteen other alderpersons in a parliamentary move that delayed a vote on Hopkins’ measure. Ervin expressed concerns over changes to the proposal, which scrapped the deputy mayor for community safety’s role in calling a snap curfew and gave unilateral power to the police department.
Following the vote delay, Mayor Brandon Johnson reiterated his apprehension around the curfew. Both Johnson and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois have questioned the proposal’s constitutionality, with representatives for the civil rights organization arguing it would result in costly lawsuits for the city. Yet the mayor stopped short of saying he would veto the ordinance. That tone appeared to change on Tuesday, when Johnson voiced fierce opposition during a press conference.
“I think it’s lazy governance quite frankly,” Johnson told reporters. “It places too much pressure on law enforcement. I continuously say that we cannot just simply rely on policing.”
As momentum against the ordinance built up inside City Hall, CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling threw cold water on the snap curfew during a June 10 federal court hearing on the city’s consent decree. Snelling told U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer that he had “never asked for the power to impose a snap curfew” and focused his opposition on the 30-minute notice provision, calling it “unfair to the youth who are already in that location,” WBEZ reported.
Those comments appeared to contradict Snelling’s earlier position on the curfew, comments from CPD Deputy Chief Jon Hein and Hopkins’ belief that Snelling had supported the proposal.
“To be clear, we have always enforced the law at large gatherings and will continue to do so at all future large gatherings. Those who commit crimes or acts of violence will be arrested and held accountable,” Snelling said in a statement provided to the Weekly. “The curfew ordinance has become more a matter of politics than public safety. Given that this is a matter that sits within the City Council, I have no further comment. My focus remains solely on the safety of our communities and what CPD is doing to enhance that safety.”
On Wednesday afternoon, 18 members of the progressive caucus issued a letter urging the mayor to veto the legislation if the City Council adopted it.
“We are also troubled by the fact that Police Superintendent Larry Snelling has publicly stated he did not request this ordinance and does not plan to use it,” the letter stated. “His comments call into question the necessity and efficacy of this proposal, and they reinforce our belief that policy decisions should be guided by data, need, and a commitment to justice—not political optics or reactive measures.”
On Wednesday morning, youth organizers urged alderpeople to vote against the snap curfew and instead invest in community activities. But some council members argued ahead of the vote not to view the proposal as a choice between funding social programs and instituting public safety. Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) supported the ordinance and noted Johnson’s efforts to increase summer youth employment.
“Now, we could do more. But to do more, we have to have the funds to do more, which means we have to grow our city,” Dowell said. “And in growing our city, we have to make sure that public safety is top of mind. Because nobody’s going to want to come into your community, my community, downtown and open up a business and generate tax revenue when they have to be concerned about public safety issues.”
Meanwhile, Ald. Angela Clay (46th) encouraged her colleagues to listen to the teens in council chambers that day.
“It bothers me that we have a room full of young people back here, and nobody has asked them their opinion on these issues,” Clay said, eliciting snaps from the group of young people with the local racial justice organization Communities United. “What we are not doing is listening to the young people of this city, who are the ones who are going to be directly impacted by this law.”
The teenage organizers with Communities United expressed dismay after the curfew vote. Earlier that morning, Romya Simone and Arianna Brandt, both 17, described a fraught relationship between Chicago’s teens and CPD. When asked whether they knew any police officers in their neighborhood, both girls responded with a clear “no.”
“You see the same faces riding through the same block. So you think that they would wave or something,” Simone said. “But I don’t know who this person is. I just see them.”
Leigh Giangreco is a freelance reporter based in Chicago. You can follow her work on Twitter/X @LeighGiangreco and at leighgiangreco.com.