At last night’s City Commission meeting, the city of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida voted to remove school bus stops from the list of locations around which persons required to register as sex offenders could live.
The current ordinance (which included school bus stops in the exclusion zones) left less than one (1) percent of Ft. Lauderdale compliant for a registrant to live. There was practically nowhere in the city to live and the numbers demonstrated that.
As of May, 2019 there are 595 persons required to register in Ft. Lauderdale and 278 of them are transient. 46.7% of the sex offender population in Ft. Lauderdale is Homeless! And that number is growing rapidly because with people on the registry for life, there is zero attrition and more people being added to the list daily. Unless housing opportunities are made available the percentage of homeless will skyrocket.
With the removal of school bus stops, one percent of compliant housing would increase to approximately fifteen percent.The move was somewhat of a compromise because the proposal going into the city commission meeting yesterday was to roll the restriction back to the state’s 1000 feet, which would have left approximately thirty percent of the city compliant. Mayor Dean Trantalis expressed concern that rolling it back to 1000 feet would make the city attractive to sex offenders.
On one hand the action taken last night is a good first step and hopefully will offer some relief to the hundreds who are currently homeless. Assurance was given that if it doesn’t do enough they city can always revisit.
On the other hand, discussion over the amendment proposal was completely devoid of the important arguments; that residency restrictions don’t work, that they destabilize registrants and increase recidivism, that they make law enforcement’s job harder because registrants are more difficult to track, that they cause the homelessness that they complain of and they only govern where a registrant sleeps between 10PM and 6AM when children aren’t even in schools, parks or school bus stops and are therefore ridiculous!
I was present at the meeting last night and wavering between a sense of accomplishment and a sense of frustration. In the end, I’m resigned to the fact that this is how politics work and we’re better off moving the pendulum in the current direction than in the other. It gives us momentum with which to swing it farther. At the end of the day, there’s awareness that these SORRs are not working and at least there is dialogue and some movement.
It is something at least. Thank you for attending.
There is nothing that could make ft lauderdale attractive, mayor.
See it flat out said it banishment another form of punishment
I know it is sort of unrelated but I have been registering now since the registry was started and today they hit us with something we had not done before. From now on, every time we come in we have to give our fingerprint on an electronic reader. One guy ahead of me tried for 20 minutes and it would not read his print. We all finally started complaining and she moved onto the next person.
Vcso now taking our prints on any piece of pAper we submit: e.g. whatever i put my address on where ill be staying has to have my print on it. Unnerving…. also now requiring i call them when i return. Dont see thAt in the requirements but staying i need to call no matter what time i get back. Im not on any probation nor restrictions. Just odd and recent. If i drive i need to add the days it takes me to get to the address in nyc as well. Flight info needs to be provided now too.
They will keep adding restrictions and made up rules until they force us to not be able to comply so they can send us all away forever. Just because these rules and laws are unconstitutional doesn’t mean a judge is willing to hear the case or not let their personal views sway the hearing just as happened in my case. When I took my case to an appeal ( sentencing appeal ) the appeal judge stated even before my lawyer spoke that it looked like the previous judge was taking out her anger on me personally. Judges hold more power with the stroke of a pen than many World leaders. They get a rush out of knowing they can control someone’s destiny with few consequences.
Dear Jack, what county is using a fingerprint scanner?
Vcso stated fdle has a new computer system that has bugs on rollout. There was info that didnt carry through and some dmv info needs to be entered manually (especially trailers and boats) some of my info wAs blank: car correct but no plate. Also they fingerprint ANYTHING you change on some forms for changing info or adding addresses etc. physical ink prints on paper. Looks like theres a revamp on the process.
It was orange county. I did make some changes but the other 12 guys there didn’t make any changes and they all had to give their print as well. It was a digital reader.
It is a start !
My personal belief is that they see “the writing on the walls” and are partially hopeful that if the make this concession they won’t be sued like other municipalities around the country and lose ALL of their crazy restrictions. Kind of a “stop-gap” measure.
The times, they seem to be a changing’.
So my question is this. If a registrant can not be at the address from 10 PM to 6 am how is this serving the public interest? Why can a registrant not buy a house where they want and just be gone from the address during the 10 to 6 time frame?
What Children are being protected between 10 at night and 6 in the morning. I am not sure of any schools, daycares and or parks that are open these hours.
It’s legal for a registrant to buy a house in a restricted area and live in it between the hours of 6 a.m and 10 p.m. Nothing in the residency restriction law serves the public interest.
If that is the case then it fails the 3rd and 4th prongs of Mendoza Martinez and under SCOTUS own litmus test should be struck down as it does not meet traditional aims of punishment and has no rational connection to non punitive punishment.
Good point!
” Mayor Dean Trantalis expressed concern that rolling it back to 1000 feet would make the city attractive to sex offenders. ”
Of course it will be attractive to sex offenders. It would be attractive to anyone who is living on the streets. Nobody wants to be homeless regardless of who you are or your background – a basic human necessity – Shelter. Now with the summer heat, rain and hurricane season, that necessity becomes more essential.
They should be the first to set an example and ban the residency restrictions 100% and show the rest of Florida how ineffective and dumb these ordinances are and how dumb the rest of Florida is for still keeping them. Its got to start somewhere.
Finally. Good news in FLORIDA.
I agree it’s a step in the right direction. Eventually the politicians themselves will see how ridiculous the entire registration is and requirements. Especially for a first time offender who has many years with no recidivism. So in the end let’s be thankful and consider it a win.
You give politicians a lot of credit. 🤔