CALL TO ACTION: Stop Volusia County Council from expanding residency restrictions
Major Concerns:
- According to the Daytona Times, the Volusia County Council could be proposing at its June 20 meeting at 4 pm an ordinance to be drafted that would expand the residency distance requirements in the unincorporated parts of the county beyond the state’s 1,000 feet from any school, child care facility, park or playground.
- The Council could also consider having an ordinance drafted that would ban adults unaccompanied by a child from county playgrounds.
PLEASE Do the Following:
- Email the Volusia County Council members to let them know that you:
(1) SUPPORT the banning of ALL adults from county playgrounds if not accompanied by an child;
(2) OPPOSE the expansion of the residency restrictions beyond the state’s 1000 ft. - Contact the council members before 4 pm Monday, June 19, which is the deadline to have your comments counted and become part of the public record. Submissions mush include the person’s name, residential city, and agenda item subject OR (Include either the agenda item being “the discussion of sex offender/predator residency distance requirements and playground regulations” OR “Item 18”).
- Ask family members and friends to also contact the council members to OPPOSE expanding the state’s 1000-ft residency restrictions.
Talking Points:
- If you live in Florida but not Volusia County, you could mention that you are opposed to increasing the residency restrictions as you do not want to see such a punitive measure spread to your county.
- If you do not live in Florida, you could mention that you feel extremely uncomfortable traveling to a state that passes laws not based on empirically validated research.
- ALL research shows that residency restrictions have had no effect on sexual recidivism.
- The sexual recidivism rate for people with a past sex offense is lower than that for all other offenses, with the exception of murder.
- When threatened with legal challenges, Gainesville and Palm Beach County rolled back their 2500-foot residency restrictions back to the state’s 1000 ft, and there has not been an increase in sex offenses because of the rollback.
- You support the banning of ALL adults (and not just people on the registry) from county playgrounds who are unaccompanied by children as research shows that over 90% of FUTURE sex crimes against children will be committed by people NOT on the sex offender registry. Just targeting people with a past sex offense will not prevent the other 90+% of sex crimes from happening.
- In 93% of sex offenses committed against minors, the child knows the perpetrator (family member, school staff, neighbor, coaching staff, church staff, etc.), debunking the myth of “stranger danger.”
- Increasing the residency restrictions increases the homeless population. Research shows that being homeless makes it more difficult for people released from prison to reintegrate back into society successfully as law-abiding citizens.
- There are hundreds of people in Volusia County with a past sex offense who are not sexually re-offending and never will. Why is Volusia County wanting to punish these people?
Contact Information for Volusia County Council Members:
Jeff Brower, County Chair – [email protected]
Jake Johansson, At-large – [email protected]
Don Dempsey, District 1 – [email protected]
Matt Reinhart, District 2 – [email protected]
Danny Robins, District 3 – [email protected]
Troy Kent, District 4 – [email protected]
David Santiago, District 5 – [email protected]
Some of the research showing residency restrictions are ineffective:
- https://www.ci.new-prague.mn.us/vertical/sites/%7BAD7ECB62-2C5E-4BA0-8F19-1426026AFA3E%7D/uploads/MnATSA-Residency-Restrictions-2016.pdf
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304990286_Grand_Challenges_Social_Justice_and_the_Need_for_Evidence-based_Sex_Offender_Registry_Reform
- https://www.doc.ks.gov/publications/CFS/sex-offender-housing-restrictions
- https://www.dpscs.state.md.us/onlineservs/sor/frequently_asked_questions.shtml Read the answer to question 15.
- http://www.icjia.state.il.us/assets/articles/SOTF_report_final_12292017.pdf
- https://mnatsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/MnATSA-Residency-Restrictions-Feb-2019-Revised.pdf
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011128712449230
- https://www.mecasa.org/uploads/1/0/1/7/101776612/sex_offender_registration_law_commission_report_2008.pdf Pages 18-19
- https://all4consolaws.org/2022/03/ali-council-approves-most-of-model-penal-code/
Some of the research showing most future sex crimes are committed by people NOT on the registry:
- Evidence-Based Recidivism Meta-Analysis Study 2021.pdf (working link to come)
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2820068/:
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232505213_Does_a_Watched_Pot_Boil_A_Time-Series_Analysis_of_New_York_State’s_Sex_Offender_Registration_and_Notification_Law
- https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2018/aug/17/why-sex-offender-registries-keep-growing-even-sexual-violence-rates-fall/
- https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/rethinking-sex-offender-registries
Some of the research showing that minors know their perpetrators approximately 93% of the time, i.e., they are not strangers:
- https://www.rainn.org/statistics/children-and-teens
- https://bjs.ojp.gov/nibrs/reports/sarble/sarble19
- https://socialmiami.com/senator-lauren-book-masks-do-not-increase-kidnapping-risk-for-children/
- Evidence-Based Recidivism Meta-Analysis Study 2021.pdf (working link to come)
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https://www.youtube.com/live/ewvechkkgL4?feature=share
It’s starts at the 9hr 51 minute and 50 seconds
So one guy “Don” is trying to educate his fellow board members it seems like. Well they postponed the ordinance increase until more information is provided. Imagine that waiting to pass as law until backed by research. Although I fear they will give in to peer pressure.
Has a kid ever been snatch at a playground? I imagine it’s around the same amount that get abducted on Halloween. They even refer to 2,500 feet in his mind as punishment but why won’t the courts.
Yes I watched it all live. Holy moly things move slow. I did appreciate that at least the council member Don spoke up. He is the exact reason I never say things like, all are bad. For those that don’t care to watch it. He was an attorney for 33 years I think he said, prosecutor and defender. He was fair with his reasoning, and brave in the face of his peers. He even said a few times that “it’s politically correct to just keep piling on restrictions, but these people are going to prison not for the crime but for these other restrictions. Living too close to something, not registering a car, etc.” I don’t know if he is just like that or he actually listened to some people that reached out to him. But one the other side, you did get the typical I will just sign off on anything against those people. Even though they are going to look at this again, I think it was a win for now
I was actually somewhat encouraged by not just what Don Dempsey had to say but what a couple of the others had to say, at least in terms of being rational and fact based in the approach. I’m going to send Don a thank you email.
Don Dempsey, District 1 – [email protected]
@Eugene
The entire thing is absurd anyway. Let us say someone was Hell bent on grabbing a kid. Would they pace off 2500 feet and hide behind a tree at the 2501 mark and grab their prey?
It is the same with school shootings. They make all these laws, rules, ordinances etc. and school shootings actually got worse.
My point is the registry and all its’ rules and restrictions is not going to stop someone who has the mindset to grab a kid. I am pretty sure that most of the people on the registry who had an underaged victim, were not hiding behind a tree or handing out candy at the corner store. There have only been a few John Wayne Gacy’s in modern history and challenge the court to name one other, other than maybe Jeffery Dhamer.
I’m watching this now, for 4 hours so far. Wow these people love talking good about themselves. I’ve heard some good talk, let’s see what they decide to do. Florida is quickly becoming unliveable.
Good morning. Did this pass?
The meeting is today at 4 pm, but the agenda says that item (item 18) is toward the end of the meeting.
Thank you. My apologies I thought it was yesterday.
Isn’t this why we already have loitering law’s? I mean, why this particular need for a law, specifically banning people? It just shows the attitude of lawmaker’s, in regards to people who are on the registry.