Pensacola Police, Mayor Explore Curfew After Weekend Mass Shooting
By Rick McCann
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
July 8, 2026
PENSACOLA, Fla. Police are brainstorming with area law enforcement, community leaders and residents trying to determine next steps after a shooting over the weekend left one person dead and six others shot.
One of the ideas being seriously considered is a seasonal curfew restricting teens from being downtown or on any city street after a certain time, such as 9 p.m.
Cities across the country have had similar violent incidents involving teens and many have instituted curfews, but not all were successful.
Pensacola Police Chief Eric Winstrom and Mayor D.C. Reeves have also addressed this since the shooting that occurred Sunday.
Chief Winstrom addressed the fact that police had their hands full well before the Palafox Street shooting even though 50 additional officers were patrolling the streets in the downtown area during the holiday festivities.
Winstrom says nine arrests were made in the hours prior to the shooting — all between the ages of 14 to 22. Police responded to over 20 fights.
Cities across the U.S. frequently institute juvenile curfews to mitigate “teen takeovers,” large-scale social media meetups, and late-night violence. While popular at face value, many researchers find little evidence that curfews significantly reduce crime, leading some municipalities to focus instead on community-based alternatives.
Some cities have used both limited curfews, and parental assistance, youth advocates and increased police presence to thwart the violence that has paralyzed some cities.
“If it’s a city-imposed curfew or a parent-imposed curfew, I think just the overall mindset of knowing where your kids are and wanting to keep them safe is an important thing,” Winstrom said. “And that would certainly improve the safeness of our community.”
Police nationwide have seen an increase of violent crimes, takeovers of streets, businesses and shopping malls by teens as young as ten years old.
The chief said that disturbances downtown amid 4th of July celebrations ranged from fights to children launching fireworks at one another.
“Some officers and myself saw some very young people, some between the ages of 10 and 11,” Winstrom said. “And the idea of a curfew isn’t necessarily that you want to take this person off the street to punish them. It’s 10 and 11 year old’s who were in some situations that I think I would be uncomfortable having my 10 or 11 year-old in. So having the ability to escort them home as a way to keep them safe is important.”
Mayor Reeves says that as of right now, community leaders are discussing curfews. But nothing can be done until an ordinance is brought to city councilmembers and voted on.
Again, police in many cities blame part of these issue on parents who have no control over their children or a lack of parental responsibilities and sometimes the plain fact is that parents are too busy to track their children’s activities.
Nearby, the City of Seaside and Panama City Beach have seasonal curfews in place during what they call “high impact periods,” like spring break.
Mayor Reeves says the primary focus right now is on the investigation, but he would be open to more conversations regarding curfews in the future.
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