Plainfield, NJ Curfew Laws: Juvenile Curfew (2026)

The Juvenile Curfew Act is §§ 10:8-8.1 through 10:8-8.9 of the Plainfield Municipal Code, adopted by the City Council. The hours come from the definition of curfew hours in § 10:8-8.3. While school is in regular session, night curfew runs from 10:00 P.M. until 5:30 A.M. on Sunday through Thursday nights and from 11:59 P.M. until 5:30 A.M. on Friday and Saturday nights. When school is not in regular session, it runs from 11:59 P.M. to 5:30 A.M. on all nights. Day curfew covers the hours school is in regular session.

For night curfew, a juvenile is anyone under eighteen, excluding a judicially emancipated or married juvenile. For day curfew, a juvenile is anyone between six and fifteen. Section 10:8-8.4 reaches four groups: the juvenile, a parent or guardian who knowingly or negligently permits it or allows it through insufficient control, and the owner, operator or employee of an establishment who knowingly permits a juvenile to remain during curfew hours.

Section 10:8-8.5 lists twelve defenses, including accompaniment by a parent or guardian, accompaniment by an adult over twenty-one authorized by a parent, exercising First Amendment rights, an emergency, being on the sidewalk abutting the juvenile's residence, returning home by a direct route within thirty minutes of a school activity or a parent-approved private gathering, carrying a signed letter of employment or a work permit, and running a written-approval errand by the most direct route. An establishment has a defense if it promptly notified the Plainfield Police Division that a juvenile was present and refused to leave.

Enforcement is staged under § 10:8-8.6. The officer asks the juvenile's age and reason for being out, warns the juvenile and directs a return home, and takes the juvenile to Plainfield Police Division headquarters when a curfew offense is found. The Division then contacts the parent or guardian, and no citation issues unless the officer determines that none of the exceptions applies.