any public place or any establishment from the evening curfew time which varies by season day of the week and the minors age unless accompanied by a parent or doing some other legitimate business police departments once viewed loitering arrests as an effective tool for disrupting certain types of criminal activity such as drug dealing and prostitution but departments across the country appear to have decreased their reliance on the tactic as concern has grown that leads to racial profiling legal experts broadly agree that it is a highly discretionary charge and in past legal challenges to its constitutionality jurists have questioned whether loitering statues are vague overly broad and highly vulnerable to discriminatory enforcement in 1972 the us supreme court ruled that one citys loitering statute encourages arbitrary and erratic arrests and convictions it makes criminal activities that by modern standards are normally innocent and it places almost unfettered discretion in the hands of the police according to andrew leipold a professor of criminal law and procedure at the university of illinois college of law loitering laws disproportionately affect minority communities loitering statues have historically targeted the poor and have historically targeted minorities leipold told abc news the overlap makes it difficult to untangle but minorities are nevertheless disproportionately affected people cross the street in philadelphia sept 11 2018 bastiaan slabbersnurphoto via getty images the analysis covers a threeyear period ending in 2018 from which the most recent data is available it does not include data from police departments in florida or illinois or the new york police department the countrys largest police force which do not report demographic data on arrests to the fbi it is also limited to jurisdictions that made at least 100 loitering and curfew arrests during that time period the analysis shows that loitering and curfew arrests are rapidly becoming a thing of the past less than 10 of departments arrested anyone for loitering and curfew violations in 2016 to 2018 only about 100 of more than 10000 police departments around the country arrested at least 100 people over that threeyear period where loitering and curfew arrests are still being made however the data shows a significant disparity after accounting for the demographics of the cities and counties those police departments serve in nearly 90 of police departments that arrested at least 100 people for loitering and curfew violations from 2016 to 2018 young black people were more likely than young white people to be arrested and in 32 of the 101 departments included in the analysis the disparity was much worse young black people were five times more likely to be arrested for loitering and curfew violations than young white people likewise in philadelphia arrests for loitering and curfew violations are in decline down from about 6000 in 2016 to about 4300 in 2017 to about 4000 in 2018 but as overall arrests have declined the percentage of young black people among those arrests is actually rising 76 in