A South Jersey town plans to hold parents or guardians criminally liable for children who break the law.

Gloucester Township enacted a new ordinance on July 28 that imposes maximum fines of $2,000, plus the possibility of up to 90 days in jail, for adults whose children continuously commit unruly acts.

The ordinance includes 28 offenses that could make caretakers liable. They range from felonies, loitering, breaking curfew and chronic truancy to immorality, habitual vagrancy and knowingly associating with immoral people.

Police Chief David Harkins said the new law covers disorderly conduct overall, calling it “general legal language. Parents will first be warned instead being assessed fines, he said.

“Our ordinance was actually sampled from other towns,” Harkins said. “We’re not necess

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