NEW ORLEANS –  Officials in New Orleans are considering tightening a youth curfew in the latest attempt to fight crime in a city with the nation's highest murder rate and what its mayor has called "a culture of death."

The city council is scheduled to vote later this month on whether to expand a recently strengthened curfew in the French Quarter and a nearby tourist area to the whole city. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas and other community leaders back the plan. But opponents worry the city is treading on the rights of children with a curfew that they say won't do much to reduce crime.

Curfew rules in effect since mid-January in the French Quarter and nearby tourist district require all those 16 and under to be off the streets by 8:00pm every day rather than merely on school nights, as was previously required. A less-stringent city-wide curfew has been in place since 1994 that allows children to stay out until 11:00pm weekends and 9:00pm weekdays in the summer.

New Orleans' murder rate has citizens rattled. Last year, 199 people were killed in the city of 344,000 -- a 14 percent increase over the year before. That comes as the national murder rate continues to drop and puts the city's rate at 10 times the national average. And this year promises more bloodshed. Twenty-five people were murdered in Orleans Parish in January, according to the coroner's office.

Police Superintendent Serpas said in an interview the tightened curfew would help police keep unsupervised children from causing crimes or becoming victims by giving police more opportunity to stop children and ask what they are doing. "It will become a tool we will use to keep kids safer," he said.

But opponents such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, citing studies of curfews, argue the new hours won't reduce violence and could lead police to violate children's rights. They also worry that black children may be unfairly targeted. "It seems like a hasty overreaction to a serious problem," said Marjorie Esman, the ACLU of Louisiana's executive director.

Three members of the seven-member city council have sponsored the new rules, but some members question whether the parish curfew center, where children violating the requirements are taken, has the resources to handle an influx.

Council President Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson worries a city-wide curfew will drain police resources, she said. She and others want a revised curfew for the French Quarter only to be studied before a city-wide plan is imposed.

Telling children to stay out of a touristy entertainment district is one thing, she said. "When you start telling 16-year-olds to get off the streets in front of their own houses at eight o'clock at night you run into a whole different problem," she said.

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