The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to extend an expanded juvenile curfew policy until April, buying legislators time to decide whether they want to adopt the stricter curfews on a permanent basis.

The policy allows the police chief to declare special extended curfew zones where young people, age 17 and under, are banned from gathering after 8 p.m. in groups of more than eight.

It also adjusted the youth curfew law that had been on the books for decades by instituting a curfew for children age 17 and younger from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily. Previously, the law did not apply to 17-year-olds and included a later curfew of midnight on weekends.

A version of the expanded curfew initially went into effect over the summer. It was the mayor, police chief and council’s collective response to several in

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