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Chicago City Council takes up teen curfew with longer notice window

By Alex Ortiz
Published  January 21, 2026 5:15am CST
News
FOX 32 Chicago

The Brief

    • The Chicago City Council is slated to vote on a revised plan to allow for teen curfews to prevent mass gatherings.
    • An earlier version of the plan was approved by aldermen last year, but Mayor Brandon Johnson vetoed it.
    • Johnson and other opponents argued that such a measure was not needed.

CHICAGO - The Chicago City Council is expected to vote on a revised curfew aimed at stopping large teen gatherings, but with a longer notice window than a previous proposal that was vetoed by Mayor Brandon Johnson.

What we know:

The new measure from Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) would let Chicago police issue a temporary "time and place" curfew in any public space, but only after giving at least a 12-hour notice.

That’s a much larger notice window from the original version of Hopkins’ proposal, which would have allowed police to declare a curfew in as little as 30 minutes.

Hopkins pushed for such a proposal last year after a series of mass gatherings in and near the city’s central business district that at times turned violent.

But the previous measure received pushback from civil liberties groups like the ACLU of Illinois, and Mayor Johnson expressed deep skepticism of the plan. Johnson vetoed the original version after it earned approval from a majority of aldermen. The City Council was unable to get the three-fifths majority necessary to override that veto.

Earlier this month, the council’s Public Safety Committee approved the revised ordinance plan, but did not pass a related proposal that would allow the city to fine social media companies for failing to remove threatening posts that encourage bad behavior.

The Source

  • The information in this story was provided by previous Fox Chicago reporting.

NewsChicago City CouncilCrime and Public SafetyBrandon Johnson