For years teens have been forced to follow a set of strict rules regarding curfew, but these rules have been reevaluated due to a rising concern about how beneficial the law really is.

The “Juvenile Curfew Law” allowed the Austin Police Department and School District officers to ticket students who were out between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. and at night between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. However, as of September 28, 2017 the Austin City Council voted to remove both the day and night time curfew in place.

The curfew allowed officers to be able to give young adults a ticket classified as a Class C Misdemeanor with a fine of up to $500.

“Although a Class C misdemeanor can be expunged from your record it causes a major headache for both the person ticketed and anyone else involved,”  Austin City Council member Ellen Toxclair said.

However this curfew proved to be difficult for some students to follow.

“Going straight from school to work definitely reduces the amount of free time I have each day to hang out with friends or get errands done.” junior Han Vo said. “Before the curfew was removed, it was almost impossible to get home before eleven and get everything done.”

So far the curfew removal has proven to be very beneficial for students.

“Now that the curfew is removed I have a lot more wiggle room to do the things I need in a timely manner after an evening shift,” Vo said. “I don’t have as much stress this year as I did last year surrounding time management and work.”

The curfew removal wasn’t implemented just to benefit students, but also to help out officers.

“Public safety resources are really valuable and our police time is a really valuable commodity and I want [officers] spending their time addressing violent crime in Austin, not ticketing kids because they were walking on a street at a certain time,” Vo said.

Austin officers have yet to see a correlation between a jump in crime and the curfew removal, making them believe the change has been justified.

“The curfew removal has been great because now I don’t have to fear getting in trouble if I had to leave campus because of an emergency or if I get home a little later because of work, most of my friends have felt the benefits of the removal as well,” Vo said.

Studies have shown that most crimes committed by minors don’t even happen during the curfew hours, and they never have.

“I don’t think it’s good public safety policy to preemptively criminalize children who had no intention of committing a crime,” Toxclair said.

The city doesn’t intend on changing the removal anytime soon, unless they have to.

“This is a permanent change. The council can bring it up again if it chooses, but their is no requirement to do so,” Council member Jason Stanford said.

So far the council has seen no change in crime rate among minors, but response time around the city for other crimes committed has improved.

“I’m really happy the council is accommodating to everyone’s needs and actually taking steps to improve the community,” Vo said.