police give minor(s) a citation for infraction

[depenike]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Penna.
Hello, my daughter was waling home with a friend a cut through a park near police station. We live about 2 miles away from station. It was around 10:15pm and a summer night with a bunch of kids walking home or hanging at park. Everyone at park was confronted by several policeman and were rounded up and told to walk in line to police station. They were giving a citation and will have to appear in a youth peer court. All the parents were called to pickup their kids at station> the kids were put in a temp holding area. The police told us that they have been watching all the parks and making arrests or given kids citations. The poilce told us that no formal letter of any kind was sent out explaining that they were cracking down on kids being at parks after dark and were having problems with kids being loud, drugs etc... I told them that my daughter was told by me to walk home and he said that unfortunately some kids may not have known about their no tolerance policy through the police's word of mouth or other kids talking about the police cracking down,and can'tive this kid a citation and others not. Help! Is this lawfully correct that the police ca do this. My daughter now has a juvenile record no matter how small. What are my rights? Thanks Denise

 

[CdwJava]

Yes, children can be charged with criminal offenses. I don't know that this is a criminal offense, but she will have to face up to it.

What makes you think that the police can NOT charge juveniles with crimes?

Assuming it is lawful for police in PA to cite minors (and I assume it is) then they can do this in lieu of a custodial arrest. Plus, they can choose to cite some but not all, it's called discretion. Not citing others does not make your daughter innocent.

- Carl

 

[racer72]

The poilce told us that no formal letter of any kind was sent out explaining that they were cracking down on kids being at parks after dark and were having problems with kids being loud, drugs etc...

When was the last time the police sent out a letter stating that they were going to enforce the law?

 

[depenike]

daughter given citation for infraction

Dear racer72,
Thankyou for your quick response. thats was exactly my point with my email. They never sent anything out to the township stating that they were doing this. When they got all th parents in the room to collect the kids they said that they were using word of mouth by police by means of stopping or citing other kids who werre in the park. They also said that they were counting on the kids to relay the message. But we do not live around that area and the police said that yes some of the good kids would get a citation unfortunately but they can't give some who were told and not give the citation to the ones that didn't know. They did say that they posted they were going to tart enforcing and give out citations on the police website. Well why would i have a need to go on the police website? there is no reason. We have a community tv station they could have posted it on. They NEVER sent any form of communication to anyone in the community. They said its a tough break forids who really were not hangin in the park but they can't citat one and not another. Thats crap!Maybe give the citations to repeat offenders but not to the kids who live 2 miles away and are not famikliar with the problems or word of mouth laws the police are laying down. What do you think?
thanks,
Denise