FInkbeiner plans to reintroduce Parental Responsibility Act

2/27/2007

Mayor Carty Finkbeiner said today he ll re-introduce an ordinance to hold parents responsible for children who hang around with gangs and commit crimes.

Mr. Finkbeiner said he was bringing back the proposed law to try to reduce juvenile crime, one week after a juvenile with a gun allegedly shot and killed a Toledo police officer, Detective Keith Dressel.

The original ordinance was introduced about a year ago by Mr. Finkbeiner and his then-Police Chief Jack Smith. But it was withdrawn a few months later after the NAACP and some members of city council questioned how it could be enforced, and the mayor acknowledged he didn t have enough votes to pass it.

At the time, council members pointed out that the city already has a teen curfew law that holds parents responsible.

Detective Dressel stopped 15-year-old Robert Jobe on a street in North Toledo early last Wednesday morning on suspicion of curfew violation and what appeared to be a drug deal in progress. When Jobe and a 19-year-old companion fled, Detective Dressel gave chase. He was shot in the chest, allegedly by young Jobe as they struggled.

Under existing law, a parent who allows his or her child to violate the curfew can be charged with a first-degree misdemeanor and sentenced up to six months in jail. Fifteen-year-olds are required to be inside by 11 p.m.

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