DeBary ordinance expands sex offender regulations
If you reside in DeBary and are being told you need to move from your home, please contact [email protected]
DeBary’s City Council passed an ordinance expanding regulations over registered sex offenders.
The ordinance bans registered sex offenders from community pools, water parks, school bus stops, and other private and public areas. The ordinance also increases the distance sex offenders can live from these places.
The previous ordinance kept sex offenders 1,000 feet away from parks, schools, bus stops, and other areas you can find children. Now, the distance is 2,500 feet.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood says he worked with community members to update the ordinance after people voiced concerns. He says registered sex offenders in violation of the ordinance must move.
“You better read this ordinance, before you rent to somebody and do a background check,” Sheriff Chitwood said, “because they’ll be relocated now with this ordinance. There’s no grandfathering-in or anything.”
The ordinance took effect upon approval. Sheriff Chitwood hopes surrounding cities will also update their sex offender ordinances.
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so if a SO does not live near that town and owns a business that says paint homes and he paints a home there or just drives past a condo or apartment complex, etc… with a pool or drives past a church and a cop happens to be nearby that the patrol car is outfitted with lic. plate readers on it they will be arrested just for being near a place or painting a home near a place and with 2500′ most likely anywhere in the city.
a parent is now unable to go to their x’s house to pick up their kids for weekend visits.
yes this is America and your free to travel unless you been deemed an undesirable sex offender then you better not travel anywhere or your subject to arrest for going to the doctor’s office in this town. also, you can’t attend church in this town.
just wondering if this meeting was held in a place where SO’s can’t go.
so with this new law will this town now be violating the sunshine law as i will not be allowed to attend the public meetings?
Yes, Brevard has had the proximity ordinance for years. No one has challenged it in court yet, so it remains. When I lived there I could only shop at one store: The Walmart on Malory but could not go into the garden center because it was within the limit. Impossible to live there, due to this banishment ordinance, so I moved…
Jed, I know what you mean about Brevard. I experienced having to go out of my way just to do basic shopping, getting a haircut, and dining out. I have written the county commissioners several times about their justification for the ordinance and the false basis on which they based it…a twenty year old Supreme Court justice commentary on high recidivism of SO’s which was since rescinded as being false but too much of an embarrassment for them to redo the ordinance. Virginia has a similar ordinance except it is based on loitering and not proximity. There one can dine in a restaurant across the street from a child care center with no problem…not so in Brevard. They have all thus far been too cowardly to respond. I have even requested a face to face meeting and still no response. It shouldn’t surprise me or anyone. Since I came off of probation and GPS monitoring, life is almost back to normal. The sheriff’s department has real criminals to concern themselves with, not an RSO buying a loaf of bread.
Regardless of what your religious beliefs are, when someone is not allowed to attend church, the Constitution says that is a violation being able to assemble for religious services and believe that would open a can of worms so large that it would lead the way for even more lawsuits.
Y’all think this is bad wait until marijuana gets legal and they can’t sentence people every day to a years probation for what’s legal in a lot of states so who you think is gonna fill up the jails? Theyre gonna make the place look good “we got 30 percent sex offenders in here” but what they aren’t gonna say is all on violating their life time punitive freedom on laws that in themselves isn’t crime or dangerous to anyone. We are taking marching orders when we shouldn’t have to ever talk to a sheriff again unless we are doing something wrong instead we report to them and give recorded testimony without right to remain silent. They Sherriff I guess is my keeper 2-50 times a year depending on your life style and work.
Yes, it is lifetime probation and nothing else! Are rights have been illegally stripped and no one cares.
We are the designated whipping boys for all of society’s problems to be blamed on…actually we are great diversion for lazy LE and manipulative politicians – perfect example of that is professional victim Senator Lauren Book!
I am an atheist but if there was a place in hell for hate-filled useless politicians Book would already have a place reserved!
How can a government make it illegal for a citizen to go to church? Can they blanket EVERYONE like this? A retroactive law that just wipes away any constitutional protections and is a setup for prosecution. No effective date to start this additional prosecution just retro it to whenever.
I have a suggestion and it’s not directly related to this. Go after and pursue some small poor town, etc… in Florida that has residency restriction and then use that win as a precedent for others to follow.
let’s find a plaintiff. Please!
Having just read the DeBary ordinance posted by JZ, doesn’t the incorrect data in Section 36-31 (d) used to support such an ordinance, make it highly likely that the ordinance would be struck down in court?
Thank God for the Florida Action committee helping to disseminate information and offer guidance and support for the victims of these thoughtless residency laws! I’m about to make another donation to FAC now!!
Wow. For every one step we take forward, we are knocked two steps back. First of all, the “facts” in the referenced article aren’t exactly accurate. The existing ordinance:
https://library.municode.com/fl/debary/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_CH36OFMIPR_ARTIISEOFRE&showChanges
which hasn’t been updated yet on MuniCode, already has the 2,500 foot rule, so it wasn’t increased from 1,000 like the $hitty article states. The “reporter” obviously didn’t do her homework, just parroted what $hitwood bleated.
What has changed is actually an expansion of prohibited places for establishing a residency within 2,500 feet [private parks, public and private waterparks, community pools, and just for “predators,” bus stops]. The grandfather clause [residency established prior to August 1, 2005] is still in the ordinance, contrary to $hitwood’s bleating. However, it should have been updated to the effective date of this ordinance.
Secondly, the ordinance also adds a proximity ban for schools, day care centers, public or private parks, public or private waterparks, playgrounds, recreational open spaces, libraries, community pools, and churches [no freedom of religion in DeBary!]
All aforementioned places AND bus stops [which were only supposed to be for “predators”] are unlawful for landlords to rent within 2,500 feet of. In all of these sections, the ordinance previously and continues to go out of the boundaries of DeBary into Orange City, Deltona, and unincorporated Volusia to be included within the 2,500 foot boundary. [How is this even possible?] The new ordinance is posted here:
http://debary.org/Pages/DeBaryFL_CouncilAgendas/2019/20190703R/S027018F8.1/OrdNo07-19sexualpred.pdf
Given that DeBary is a city of about 20 square miles, this is effectively banishment. Oh, and when $hitwood says “he worked with community members to update the ordinance after people voiced concerns,” turns out those “people” are the DeBary Golf & Country Club homeowners association. I learned this from watching the $hity council meeting. The ordinance comes up around 25:30 and is approved by 28:50:
https://livestream.com/DeBary/events/8709508/videos/193347420
Two of $hitwood’s shills are present, Detective Lee and Captain Forton. Not sure if it’s related to this ordinance, but there’s a special council meeting on July 17:
http://debary.org/Pages/DeBaryFL_EmerNews/02704C55-000F8513