The idea has broad support, but some fear police overreach.
By Gretchen Cochran
Original Air Date: November 21, 2025
Host: The Manatee County Commission this week adopted a juvenile curfew. Bradenton already has one, it’s backed by an existing Florida law, and it is a broadly supported idea. But WSLR reporter Gretchen Cochran also heard the anxiety of those who fear the effects of more policing.
[Clock ticks]
Gretchen Cochran: Hear that? It’s the sound of a clock counting down to 11 p.m. weeknights when Manatee County teens under 17 are now expected to be off the streets. So said the county commissioners at their meeting November 17. They were responding to a request from the school district with an ordinance allowing police to query kids late at night about what they’re up to. Teens will get an extra hour on weekends.
Commissioner Amanda Ballard sponsored the ordinance. Ballard is an attorney who works in the local child welfare system.
Amanda Ballard
Amanda Ballard: This is—it’s civil, number one. Number two, initially—first time—it’s always a warning. It’s education and letting people know, “Hey, keep your kids home. Keep them safe if they’re not in an organized activity.” There are a lot of kids, unfortunately, who are out on the streets and their parents don’t even know. I spent eight years as an attorney in the child welfare system, and unfortunately, these things do happen and happen regularly in Manatee County.
GC: She talked of kids on the street because they were afraid to go home. Some parents or caregivers are abusers, she said.
In fact, within the same week, the statewide Operation Home for the Holidays yielded 122 missing children from 23 months old to 17. Some were victims of theft or child predators. The U.S. Marshals led the effort yielding 57 kids in Tampa, for example.
But not all commissioners were on board.
George Kruse and Mike Rahn voted against the measure, reflecting pushback from residents fearing police overreach.
George Kruse
George Kruse: I’m going to vote ‘no’ again today. I don’t like this. There’s a curfew, and there’s not a curfew. Right now, we do not have a curfew. You alluded to the fact that, “Well, we’ll ask the kid what he’s doing out there, and if we—subjectively, at our own discretion—feel that the kid’s okay, then we’ll just let him keep doing it. Maybe we’ll call the parent, let them know, ‘Hey, your kid’s out fishing at three in the morning.’ We’re going to let you go.” I don’t think everyone’s going to get that same level of thoughtfulness. You either have a curfew or you don’t. And if you have a curfew, at 11:01 p.m, I expect cops to be driving around Lake Club and concessions and picking people up on the sidewalk and bringing them to the police station, because the first step of the enforcement procedure is “shall be transported immediately to a police station to be asked questions.”
GC: But the measure passed, 5 to 2. Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells explained:
Rick Wells
Rick Wells: They are in violation of the curfew, but we’re still going to find out why they’re there, tell the parents that they are there and try to make the parents aware that this is a violation. We’re not trying to penalize them $50. We’re trying to get them home.
GC: And therein lay the crux of the arguments from citizens calling in and speaking at the hearing: Did this ordinance represent law enforcement overreach?
The law is based on one passed by the state legislature, providing a template that any community can adopt. Bradenton, and now unincorporated Manatee County have a teen curfew. But crossing the county limit at University Parkway South, a teen would not be subjected to stops and checks. Neither Sarasota County nor the city of Sarasota have teen curfews.
Sitting behind the sheriff in the audience was Tracey Washington, president of the local chapter of the NAACP. Washington is African-American. She took the podium and told the commissioners why some find the curfew frightening.
Tracey Washington
Tracey Washington: District Two is me. Everybody looks like me, or they are Hispanic or Latino. We don’t have the privilege like Lakewood Ranch and other areas—Anna Maria, all of those areas—to say that we’re not going to get profiled. Like I told the sheriff from the beginning, I am not here to make this a racial thing right now. I’m not here for that. I do not want our children to get overpoliced. We do not have everybody on the police force that is a nice person. Everybody is not Officer Friendly like you see Chief Cramer or Chief Wells. We know what happens in our neighborhoods after 2:00 in the morning. When our children are outside or break this curfew, I understand that they say that they’re trying to get them home or get them somewhere safe where they’re supposed to be, but let’s be realistic here: What happens when they so-called ‘resist’? That’s the excuse we’re going to hear when something happens to one of them. ‘Resist’. ‘They resisted’. Give me the definition here today of ‘resisting’. I’m going to tell you, I deal with a lot of mothers that have lost their children in the street.
Sheriff Wells, answering questions from Commissioners George Kruse, Bob McCann, Amanda Ballard and Jason Bearden.
GC: The ordinance decrees that a parent will be contacted if a youngster is stopped. The first stop will yield a warning, to be followed by a $50 charge to the teen and $50 to the parent. But what if the parent is not available, possibly at work?
“Parents should be home with their kids,” a caller told the commissioners.
Florida’s model statute lists exceptions to juvenile curfews, including being with a parent or guardian, working legally, attending school or religious events, exercising First Amendment rights, responding to emergencies, being married or emancipated, on the sidewalk near home or interstate travel.
During the hearing, Commissioner Kruse noted that teens would be taken to the police station, a potential action not discussed but one that most bothered him.
We attempted to get a copy of the curfew’s final draft, which required a public records request taking days. Meanwhile, the following day, we encountered a Manatee County sheriff’s deputy and asked him about the curfew. He’d heard nothing about it.
For WSLR News, this is Gretchen Cochran.
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