Kaplan residents will have a permanent curfew to eliminate the traffic of bikes and walking starting July 1 from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. 

KAPLAN, La. (KLFY) -- Kaplan residents will have a permanent curfew to eliminate the traffic of bikes and walking starting July 1 from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. 

“There’s a little bit of a misconception too. People think it's a curfew from 11 PM until 4 in the morning that only applies to walkers and bicycle traffic,” said Kaplan Mayor, Mike Kloesel. 

He adds, “The chief noticed a big influx of bicycle traffic during the night and people walking around. It’s not usually a good thing when that happens. So in order to prevent any issues and problems, the chief asked the council to institute a curfew. They agreed.” 

Chief Joshua Hardy explains, “I was approached by a couple of citizens asking if there was anything we could do about certain people walking around at night riding their bicycles. We also have issues with some of the bicycles they put like a little motor on it; motorized bicycles, and it doesn’t really have an exhaust, so it’s really loud, so they came and voiced their concerns and asked if there was anything we could do to prevent this,” explains Police Chief Joshua Hardy. 

“Someone that’s walking home from, let’s say, Sonic after work, they’re not going to stop these people and harass them,” said the chief. “The curfew would more or less be at the officer's discretion. [For] anyone walking or riding a bicycle after 11 pm, the officer will basically get down; do a field interview in which they’ll ask the person's name; the day of birth. Run a check on them to make sure that they don’t have any warrants. From there, it would be determined, hey, look, we do have a curfew in effect you need to get off the street; to home.” 

If a person is stopped the second time, they’ll be issued a summons. If it is repeating offenses, they would have to go to court and explain to the judge why they were out after curfew. 

Chief Hardy said after 9 p.m., his officers usually stopped 10 to 20 people for drug activity. 

“Louisiana is a stop-and-identify state, so that ordinance is not really to hurt anybody it’s just to stop these people walking that have no reason to be walking,” he said. 

Chief Hardy tells News 10 the curfew is to stop people from walking into others’ yards and stealing. In addition, police want to control the drug activity that occurs at night.

Joe Taravella, a Kaplan resident for 12 years, said, “It’s not every that the drug problem is very palpable in this town. I talked to people several times a week not only in Kaplan but Abbeville, Gueydan, even in Lafayette.” 

He continues, “People are very well aware of the problem that we have here, and this is a mechanism that the police chief has introduced. The mayor is on board with the council is on with and hoping it’s a vehicle that’s going to at least put a handle on the problem. I know that it’s not going to be a cure-all for the problem, but at least maybe we can begin to curb it.” 

Taravella expressed there are people out there that are concerned about getting stopped for being on the road for a good reason, such as they are going to work.

“There’s a fraction of people that believe that is infringing on people's rights, but at the same time, I think people can sit back and put a little perspective on the situation and agree that the good simply has to pay for the bad right now. I believe if they don’t do something about it now, the problem is only going to get worse,” said Taravella. 

He shared how drugs impact him and the community around him. 

“I talked with people all the time who go through similar things, and many of them are at a point now where they’re desperate for this problem to solve itself, but we all know it’s not going to happen that way, and it’s surely not going to happen overnight, but at least we’re going to try,” he said. 

“We surely want to work with the chief of police and the police department in every way we can to make Kaplan a safe community and also let everyone know don’t bring your junk here. Don’t bring your crap here because the chief of police is on top of things,” said Mayor Kloesel.  

“If you’re in your car, going to the store, you need something that doesn’t apply to you. This just gives the police a tool to find out what’s going on with people walking or on their bicycles and let them know you can’t be out now between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m., so you need to go home or the next time you would get arrested,” he said. 

If you have any questions or concerns, call Kaplan City Hall at (337) 643-8602 or the Kaplan Police Department at (337) 643-8600.