In 2001 some 50 children were returned home summer

This is a first for some, a measurement of routine for others, the renew for several years. Antibes, Lisieux, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Villedieu-les-Poêles, Brunoy, Yerres. This summer, ten Commons prohibit youth of thirteen, fourteen or sixteen years to venture into the streets, between nightfall and 6 hours of the morning, without be accompanied by an adult. A curfew introduced via law by elected officials mainly from right. If there is outcry aroused in the early 2000s by the first initiatives of this type, it is still debate.

The curfew is intended to assist families, or to ensure the tranquillity of the municipality by providing a legal basis to the arrests of minors by the police The magistrates are skeptical. "These laws do not solve the fundamental problem, which is that of minors sometimes very young are not in their family night, says Laurent Bédouet, Secretary General of the Union of magistrates." These situations are indicative of a serious family dysfunction, which cannot be settled by a simple curfew.

Prevention or repression

On the ground, the police are also reluctant. Regional Office Police Alliance, Philippe Brunetti Union PACA j. "inapplicable" curfew in cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. "How many cars of police should be to bring 500 young people." This is not the mission first of the police and it is a deprivation of liberty if there is no offence. As a fifteen year old located outside is not an offender.

But Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Deputy-Mayor of Yerres, in the Essonne, where the measure is renewed every summer since 2001, insists: "It is not an element of repression, but a prevention measure of last resort for empowering parents." It is not miracle device, this must be part of a wide range of measures of social work. "At Yerres, young people less than thirteen years discovered the night police are renewed with their parents, who must pay a fine and meet a Deputy Mayor. A device that has been proven, according to the Deputy-Mayor. "In 2001, some 50 children were returned home summer." There is more than a decade.

At Antibes - Juan-les-Pins (80,000 people) an order is also renewed since the beginning of the 2000s, for reasons specific to the city, said Deputy Mayor UMP Jean Léonetti. "The order had been made, in collaboration with the police and social services, to protect the children sent by their big brothers or parents, sell roses and begging at night on our streets."

At Antibes, as in Yerres, mayors resignent each year these orders, although they are now recognizing that they are no longer required in their cities. However, restrict the freedom of movement of adolescents is subject to conditions. In 2001, the State Council had approved such measures provided that they are justified by specific risks and meet a goal of protection of minors.

Conditions which explain to Belfort, curfew introduced in the summer 2007 by the elected representatives of left was not renewed. "The exceptional circumstances of emergency which had required it - of incidents committed in the municipality and a district in particular - are not reproduced", reflects Emmanuelle Morandeira, Director of the municipal police.