people.

Sen. Lawrence Scott said he was "flabbergasted'' when he saw teenagers on the streets in the early hours of the morning recently.

And he says he has a lot of support for Chief Insp. Larry Smith's idea of a curfew to cut juvenile crime.

Along with the parents anti-drug agency PRIDE, Chief Insp. Smith has presented plans for a juvenile curfew for youngsters under 16, after reports of school children working for drug dealers at age 14 and burglarising homes as young as nine-years-old.

He pointed out that a curfew law is currently in force in a number of US cities, including Atlanta and Houston. It bars minors from being on the street between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. unaccompanied by an adult and from being in bars and nightclubs.

But the plan was described as "pretty severe action'' and premature by Police Commissioner Mr. Lennett (Lenny) Edwards.

However Sen. Scott has some support for the curfew after his experience on the way to meet a client at Hamilton Police Station recently.

He said: "On my way I observed young children on streets hanging around at 2.

30 a.m. I was absolutely flabbergasted.

"It was a Thursday evening and I could not quite fathom why these young boys were there, and if their parents knew about it.'' Sen. Scott wondered how the young people could concentrate at school the following day after being out so late at night.

He added: "Despite the fact that the Senior Police officer Mr. Edwards is not inclined to go as far as Insp. Smith I think we have go to get to the root of this problem.

"Young children ought not to be out on the street at that time of night. They could be doing something more profitable.

"It oughtn't happen and we need to do something to rectify the situation, although we should not be too Draconian.'' Sen. Scott said he believed the onus should be put on parents of the children.