It totally depends on the street, and the time of day. Where I grew up, and in one of the house where my children grew up, it was totally safe for children to play outside, and be free-roaming. It was the sort of estate where it was immediately obvious there would be lots of children, and they would be playing. Where I live now, it would not be safe for children to play in the road, but there's a little park 250m from out front door. There's also a school playing field 150m away. These would be far safer places to play.

When I was little, the neighbor kids thought it was funny to walk slow in the middle of the street so cars couldn't pass. One day, they did it to a teenager that wasn't putting up with it. They backed up and then gunned it.f The kids had to jump out of the way and ended in the ditch. On the flip side, their mom was not aware of what they were doing, and when she found out, it was the kids yelling, not the teenager. This is a FAFO situation, all it takes is one pissed off person, or a drunk and something bad is going to happen.

OP: Please copy-paste the entirety of the ordinance. I am intrigued and would like to see its exact wording.

It's a safety issue. If you can't share the road with cars, you shouldn't be in the road. Also, the officer was lazy.

Looking at comments, I think the big difference is that those of us who played in the street as kids had enough sense to get out of the street if a car came down. In this story that does not appear to be the case.

OP doesn't care about the kids, they care about their business being inconvenienced. No need to apply Fake Nobility polish, just say what you mean.

This is just escalating the issue too far. Is it illegal for them to be there? Maybe, but does that really need to be what we bring this to? Ask for the kids to move when you drive by. If they refuse, instead of talking about the legality of the situation, go to the mom yourself and ask for her to instruct her kids to move for cars for their own safety. Instead of acting like they're doing something awful, which will cause mom to immediately be defensive, talk more about wanting to make sure the kids can keep playing outside but in a safe manner that allows you both to share the road. Meet her where she's at and maybe she won't be so yelly and defensive. No need whatsoever to get the cops involved. Because you escalated it so far, YTA here. I do think ESH in reality, but OP is one of the a******s involved and had the power to de-escalate the situation from the start but chose not to.

I can almost imagine the scenario - the driver honking and shouting at the kids to move their a*sés out of the way and them and the mother being angry with them and refusing to move. Sounds like a real asshat to me

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Is the picture of the kids? Is there a yard? Is it in the middle of the city? The officer did not know the law? Has only one person complained? "Several times over the past few years?" So is that once a year or twice a year?