{"id":305146,"date":"2026-07-24T22:23:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T22:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/305146\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T22:23:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T22:23:42","slug":"rochester-officials-enforce-group-gathering-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/305146\/","title":{"rendered":"Rochester officials enforce group gathering ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014\u00a0The city of Rochester is now banning large group gatherings after 11 p.m. without a permit.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to be putting our members kind of in an unwinnable situation of, ‘do this, but we won’t tell you how to do it,’\u201d said Kevin Leckinger, Rochester Police Locust Club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That was Leckinger\u2019s first reaction reading this new emergency order issued by Rochester Mayor Malik Evans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt says that gatherings of 10 or more people between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. are now unlawful,\u201d said Leckinger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leckinger, who works with the local police union says there\u2019s been a lack of guidance around how officers are expected to enforce the ban.<\/p>\n

“So, certainly as the Locust Club, the union that represents the police officers, we worry about, what exactly would be the repercussions if they don’t enforce it exactly as the city wants them to?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The executive order announced by Evans comes after a string of large gatherings turned violent. The measure was enforced the same night it was announced, when Evans says fights broke out after hundreds took over streets in a neighborhood after a music video shoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cA perfect example of why I put a ban in place,\u201d said Evans. \u201cThe party was over but people didn\u2019t want to leave. A few people created issues for the whole neighborhood.”<\/p>\n

Similar situations have\u00a0occurred in other cities across New York state, like street parties after the Fourth of July in Buffalo leading to 11 people shot in multiple shootings.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cStreet takeovers with 100 people in the street, we\u2019re not going to allow it,” said Capt. Greg Bello, Rochester Police Department. “Streets have to be open and there\u2019s fights breaking out in those crowds.”<\/p>\n

Similar solutions, like age-specific curfews, have also been considered in areas upstate,<\/a> but controlling crowds and enforcing the new group gathering ban takes resources \u2014 ones that Leckinger says aren\u2019t always available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to arrest 10 or 15 or 20 or 50 people, who is going to do all that work and what other citizens and travelers in Rochester will not receive police services, as our police officers are making arrests for a class B misdemeanor of gathering in public in the overnight hours,” said Leckinger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Evans himself did announce earlier this month he was looking into setting a youth curfew. This large gathering ban, however, applies to all ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014\u00a0The city of Rochester is now banning large group gatherings after 11 p.m. without a permit.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50,12,308,18479,115,200],"class_list":["post-305146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-public-safety","tag-rachel-niemi","tag-rochester","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}