Houston police respond to \u2018teen takeover\u2019 at Discovery Green; shots fired, 2 detained with guns<\/a><\/p>\nIn 2023, Texas lawmakers approved House Bill 1819, which eliminated the authority of local governments to adopt or enforce juvenile curfews. State lawmakers cited research suggesting curfews were ineffective at reducing crime.<\/p>\n
The renewed discussion comes after Houston police responded to a teen takeover at Discovery Green on Saturday night that drew hundreds of young people to the area. During the incident, officers reported shots were fired and detained two individuals who were allegedly carrying guns.<\/p>\n
Prior to the change in state law, Houston\u2019s ordinance prohibited minors younger than 17 from being in public places during certain overnight hours unless they met specific exceptions. While the ordinance remains in the city\u2019s code, it can no longer be enforced because of state law.<\/p>\n
Some Texas communities have pushed for restoring local authority to enact juvenile curfews amid concerns about youth violence and large gatherings involving teenagers. Lawmakers have filed proposals that would allow cities to once again adopt curfew ordinances, but no changes have been approved.<\/p>\n
Following the latest teen takeover, KPRC 2 asked Houston Mayor John Whitmire\u2019s office whether the city planned to seek assistance from Gov. Greg Abbott or request a special order that could allow a curfew.<\/p>\n
The Mayor\u2019s Office responded:<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time, we are not going to contact the governor about this topic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Following another large \u201cteen takeover\u201d event in downtown Houston over the weekend, some residents are asking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[30726,4903,56,120334,58,3771,120332,57,223,120331,120333,120330,120335],"class_list":["post-337308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-curfew","tag-discovery-green","tag-houston","tag-houston-city-ordinance","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-mayor-john-whitmire","tag-houston-minors-curfew","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-teen-curfew","tag-teen-gatherings-houston","tag-teen-takeover","tag-youth-violence-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}