Raleigh City Council Talks Possible Teen Curfew

Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce spoke to the city council on Tuesday afternoon about the "teen takeover" that took place in Downtown Raleigh over the July 4th weekend. Approximately 8,000 youths gathered on Glenwood South and Brier Creek for festivities, leading to 29 arrests, including four incidents of gunfire.

"The actions of what we saw Saturday was something I had never seen in my 26 years here at the Raleigh Police Department," Boyce said.

Chief Boyce reported that his team seized 11 firearms and had four juvenile petitions pending, with one being escalated to a secure custody order. He anticipated that further charges and arrests would arise as the investigations progressed. Boyce called the teenagers involved with the incident "unruly," "undisciplined," and "unsupervised."

"We were prepared for the crowd size," Boyce said. "What we were not prepared for was the level, the amount of firearms that we were recovering off of individuals on Saturday night."

The police's next steps involve monitoring intelligence, particularly via social media, engaging with local businesses, increasing targeted staffing, and providing additional support resources, he stated.

Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell expressed her belief that the city council would be prepared to support a curfew, noting that the earliest the city could initiate the process would be in August. As mayor, Cowell indicated her readiness to implement emergency measures during the drafting phase if similar incidents were to occur.