City of Covington implements daytime curfew

COVINGTON, Ky. - The City of Covington is taking a tougher stance on truancy by implementing a new daytime curfew.

The Covington city council voted unanimously to enact an ordinance that will give police new abilities to crack down on kids who are found off school grounds during school hours.

Under the conditions of the new ordinance, police can return truant kids back to school -- in the past, officers would have to hold the kids until a guardian could come pick them up.

"The way the state statute is set up now, there's a whole lot that goes into actually charging a child with truancy on the onset initially that we have to go through. This eliminates some of those steps, it prevents our police officers from having to be babysitters, so to speak, and it gives us a safe place to take these kids and get them returned back into the environment where they can learn," said Assistant Chief of Covington Police, Lt. Col. Michael 'Spike' Jones.

Some opponents of the ordinance were concerned police might mistakenly hassle children who are homeschooled.

Covington police believe that steps can be taken make sure that doesn't happen.