Provo • The Municipal Council will decide in a month whether to empower police to crack down on truants.

The council voted 5-1 Tuesday to discuss a proposed daytime curfew ordinance at its March 1 study meeting. At that time, it will decide whether to move the item to that evening's regular meeting agenda, and if it will contain language that will make sloughing school a primary or secondary criminal offense.

The council was going to move it forward to the Feb. 15agenda, but Councilwoman Cynthia Dayton said she would be out of town, and wanted to address concerns about how the ordinance would be enforced.

"If it is a secondary offense, it is OK, but if it is a primary offense, I see a loss of opportunity for every child and college student who looks like they are under 17," Dayton said.

Councilman Sterling Beck, a critic of the ordinance, said that happened to him in Los Angeles when he was a 17-year-old high-school graduate. He only got out of detention when his mother faxed a copy of his high school transcript to police.

Councilman Steve Turley proposed bringing in a juvenile court judge and a representative of the school district to the March 1 meeting to offer perspective on the ordinance before the council approves it.

The ordinance would make it illegal for school-age children to be out in public during school hours. There would be exceptions for those who are not enrolled in the district's schools, are excused by their parents, are home-schooled or are traveling through the area.

The ordinance was proposed as a way to combat gang activity and youth crime. Police Sgt. Matt Siufanua, who oversees the department's school resources officers, said making it a secondary offense — an officer would have to stop the child for another suspected crime before adding on the truancy charge — would defeat that purpose. The secondary offense clause was offered to appease Beck's concerns that it would target minors.

"We can respond to crime, or we can try to prevent it," Siufanua said.

The ordinance would help the school district by getting help for truant students sooner than currently happens, Siufanua said. Under state law, a student has to be truant five days in a row before the matter is referred to the authorities.

Provo City Attorney Ryan Wood said that with a primary offense ordinance, officers can detain a student to check his or her status if they have a reasonable — and explainable — suspicion that the person is truant.

He said the district could offer home-schoolers some identification to carry in the event they are stopped.

Ogden, Roy and Weber County already have a daytime curfew, which allows police to stop and cite youth from 6 to 18 years who are truant.

dmeyers@sltrib.com

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