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Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) announced on Thursday that she will reinstate a youth curfew at National Harbor following a brawl over the weekend involving hundreds of teenagers at the popular shopping and entertainment destination.

“The incident that we saw this past weekend, to put it mildly, was quite troubling,” Alsobrooks said at the Tanger Outlets in National Harbor during the news conference, adding that she shares the frustration of community residents who want to enjoy their surroundings without rowdiness.

The curfew will begin Friday at 5 p.m. for unaccompanied minors age 16 and younger and will be effective throughout the weekend.

“I want to be clear that this decision was not made in reaction to the events of this past weekend,” she said. “Instead, this past weekend’s incident confirms what we’ve been planning for the past several months. This<a href="https://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/sites/default/files/media-document/EO%204-2024%20-%20State%20of%20Emergency%20Temporary%20Juvenile%20Restrictions%20at%20National%20Harbor.pdf" target="_blank"> executive order </a>curfew is just a temporary measure as we finalize a long-term solution.”

The announcement comes just days after members of the county’s council <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/04/23/national-harbor-youth-curfew-fines/" target=_blank>passed a bill in a committee meeting</a> to allow retail and commercial areas to request curfew zones, and introduce fines on guardians with minors who violate the curfew. Council member Edward Burroughs III (D-District 8), who was present at Thursday’s news conference, introduced the bill last week, but the council upgraded it to an emergency bill following the incident at National Harbor. The legislation is up for introduction Tuesday and will be subsequently scheduled for a public hearing and a final vote. Alsobrooks’s order will be in place until the emergency bill takes effect.

About 800 teens swarmed National Harbor last weekend, with “fighting, shoplifting, smoking cannabis” and confrontations with business owners, Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz said. Authorities arrested at least three people that day, including one adult, Aziz said.

There has been a broader push to address juvenile crime in the D.C. suburb, which is one of many jurisdictions grappling with an uptick in youth violence. For three years, more adolescents than <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/20/crime-year-end-police-chief-prince-georges/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9&itid=lk_inline_manual_12" target=_blank>adults </a><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/20/crime-year-end-police-chief-prince-georges/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9&itid=lk_inline_manual_12" target=_blank>have been arrested on carjacking charges</a> in the county. Last year, 92 juveniles were arrested — sometimes on school grounds — on suspicion of possessing a gun, according to county police department data. Last Friday afternoon, five teens were shot and injured in a Prince George’s County park where hundreds of students from multiple high schools had gathered on “senior skip day.”

Alsobrooks, who is running for the U.S. Senate, noted that this isn’t the first time that a curfew has been implemented for National Harbor. In 2022, the county renewed enforcement of its juvenile curfew after logging one of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/06/prince-georges-curfew-violence/" target=_blank>deadliest months for homicides</a> in Prince George’s history.

According to county police department data, from Sept. 10, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2022, there were 11 curfew-related incidents and 15 curfew warnings issued.

The police department will increase its personnel numbers at National Harbor, though Aziz declined to say how many officers were assigned to the harbor before last weekend and how many will be present going forward.

“When you come into the harbor, there will be no excuse for saying you did not know,” he said. “We’ll have upwards of 12 messenger boards that you can see when you enter in into the harbor from the freeway.”

Approximately 30 percent of National Harbor’s revenue is generated on weekends, Alsobrooks said.

Prince George’s County received $3 million in revenue from the state in March for MGM National Harbor operations’ video lottery terminal and table game local taxes, according to a <a href="https://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/sites/default/files/media-document/Monthly%20Report%20-%20No%209-FY%202024%20-%20VLT%20and%20TG%20Local%20Taxes.pdf" target=_blank>county report</a>.

“Here’s the simple truth: If visitors do not feel safe coming to the National Harbor … our state and our county will suffer,” Alsobrooks said.

National Harbor does need to be a peaceful area, but more work is needed to help youths in the county, Burroughs told The Washington Post in an interview.

“Simply pushing them out of the harbor is not going to fix those societal issues that are deeply embedded within our own communities,” he said. “This is a first step, but if we don’t also invest in our mentoring programs and our wraparound services, we’re falling short.”

As with the enforcement of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/10/pg-county-curfew-begins/" target=_blank>previous curfews</a>, members of the community cautioned that offering more robust resources to serve youths would be more important.

“We acknowledge a problem exists, but we continue to prioritize punishments instead of services,” Dawn Dalton, a member of the Prince George’s Police Accountability Coalition, said in a statement. “Our county cannot criminalize our children and parents while promoting incarceration, fines, and fees that only make it harder for families to survive. Let’s start providing funding to trusted youth advocacy and mentorship organizations that create safe spaces for our children to express themselves in a creative and supportive manner.”

Yanet Amanuel, public policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland, said that the organization opposes child curfews and that the enforcement “shifts limited police resources away from crime prevention,” draws concern of racial bias and could strain families by fining parents, particularly those with lower incomes.

“Criminalizing the innocent behavior of children is fundamentally ineffective. Studies show that curfew laws do nothing to deter crime or to protect young people,” Amanuel said in a statement.

Alsobrooks and Aziz were firm that curfews have worked in Prince George’s County before.

In roughly the first three months of 2023, violent crime during curfew hours decreased compared with the same time in 2022, but certain crimes such as assaults and robberies increased, according to police data. The police department had contacts with 316 juveniles during curfew hours from Jan. 1, 2023, to March 22, 2023, and issued 43 warnings. Police also arrested 12 who were violating curfew at the time, including two arrests for armed carjacking and six for stolen vehicles.

“Nobody is saying that a curfew cures crime,” Alsobrooks said. “It’s one tool. … None of us believe that doing nothing is right. We believe that it is absolutely not an option not to do anything.”

S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, M.A.

Lateshia Beachum is a reporter covering Prince George's County. She joined The Washington Post as a general assignment reporter in 2019. She previously worked for The Center for Public Integrity. 

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First Place, Best College Feature Writing, Ohio Society of Professional Journalists

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Jasmine Hilton is a reporter covering crime and courts on the Metro desk at The Washington Post.

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National Harbor youth curfew will be enforced in Prince George’s County

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Prince Georges County Public Schools Superintendent Millard House II and County Executive Angela Alsobrooks visit Hyattsville Middle School on the first day of school in the new building on Monday, August 28, 2023. 

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