IL: An impossible situation
Beginning January 1, the City of Chicago will ban unhoused people on the sex offense registry from seeking shelter on public buses and trains.
Terrance has followed the same routine for years. Once a week, he leaves his family around 7 AM and drives to the Second District police station, a rectangular, two-story building of beige bricks at 51st and Wentworth in Chicago’s Fuller Park neighborhood. Inside, he joins a handful of other people sitting on worn wooden benches in the dimly lit waiting area. After a time, he steps up to meet a detective behind the front desk and hands over a white sheet of paper on which he’s written the address of every place he stayed the previous week.
Terrance, who asked to use only his first name for his safety, is homeless—but not because he doesn’t have a place to stay. He could be living at home with his wife of two years, but the state’s amalgamation of housing banishment laws has made vast swaths of Chicago illegal for him and hundreds of others similarly situated. A sex offense conviction from more than 15 years ago means he’s barred from living within five hundred feet of a school, playground, or day care.
Terrance is meticulous; anything less could spell disaster. If he misses a single week or transcribes even one address incorrectly, he could be hauled off to jail on the spot and charged with a new felony. “It’s a life-and-death situation,” he says. By law, he can’t stay at the same address more than twice in one year, otherwise he’d have to register it as a “temporary residence.” This means he has to find 183 different places to stay annually.
Yet, beginning January 1, he and the rest of the city’s weekly registrants will have even fewer options for shelter as Chicago plunges into the depths of winter. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is planning to enforce a policy that bars people with sex offense convictions from riding public transit for more than two hours at a time, say multiple registrants and advocates in interviews with the Reader. The change, the latest in a constantly shifting landscape of rules governing nearly every aspect of the lives of people with sex offense convictions.
Chicago – Sex Offender Homeless Flyer
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They said on the news today 12/28/2025, come January first a new public registry will be live for people to view on the FDLE site, for animal abuse registrants.
I do hate people who abuse animals, but more registries and just going to have everyone on a registry, which may be what it takes to take them all down. But how many decades will that take, until everyone is on a registry.
Animal Abuser Registry
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is set to launch a new statewide animal abuser registry, known as Dexter’s Law, which will create Florida’s first public database of convicted animal abusers. This database will be available on the FDLE’s website and will include individuals found guilty, pleaded guilty, or entered a no contest plea to animal cruelty charges. The registry aims to enhance public awareness and transparency regarding animal cruelty, assist shelters and rescue organizations in vetting potential adopters, and provide law enforcement with a tool for investigations. The database will be accessible to the public and will help prevent animals from being placed in homes with individuals who have prior cruelty convictions. The law also increases penalties for aggravated animal cruelty offenses, reflecting the state’s commitment to protecting animals and enforcing animal protection laws.
The have a registry for law enforcment officers who abuse their power as well. I just for got the name of it
I guarantee they won’t have the burden of complying with dozens of restrictions like we do.
That may be, but will the impacts of being publicly listed be a detriment to them in the same vein as a PFR?
News gave more information last evening. Those on that registry will automatically be removed after 10 years of no other incidents related to animal abuse.
***Update*** on the animal abuse registry.
Wow just wow. Even the news reporters were stunned. The registry for animal abusers has NOTHING but each person’s name. No photos, no addresses, not details of the abuse, just a name. One reporter stated if there are five John Smith’s on there, that could be anybody since no other details are given other than a long list of names.
What can you find in Florida’s Animal Cruelty Offender List?
As of Jan. 2, 2026, the initial database contains 1,668 names of people who were convicted of or admitted to aggravated animal abuse in the state of Florida.
https://web.fdle.state.fl.us/dexter/about.jsf
I read the parent article in full. It seems to me that at least one Detective in this situation is doing everything he can think of to go beyond the law. CPD Policies are not law and in America only the Legislature can create laws.
In fact the Cavalier attitude by law enforcement seems to be quite a bit like that of certain counties in Florida. Twisting the rules to make arrests is actually illegal in this Nation. The “flyer” put out by CPD lacks legislative backing however it shows quite well just how far the system has fallen.
In truth every time there is a spike in crime the first group targeted are registrants. By targeting the captive populace they can show increased arrest and conviction rates that require no actual work to be done to solve the real problems.
It’s all done to bring in more revenue and for the officers to gain promotions and raises.
“All but four of the arrests are tied to one detective: Jonathan Washkevich of the CPD’s Criminal Registration Unit, the division that oversees local compliance with the four state public conviction registries.”
The same news outlet has reported that Det. Washkevich was named in a police brutality/false arrest lawsuit in 2009 that was setlled out of court; Washkevish was forced to pay $32k for his role in the police misconduct. How is this crooked cop still on the force?
https://projects.chicagoreporter.com/settlements/officer/24525/
Plaintiff:
P.R.
Incident date:
07/28/2009
Allegations:
As 16-year-old P.R. was sitting with friends on a neighbor’s stoop, Officer Chapello walked up to the group and accused them of vandalizing a new condominium building nearby. P.R. was talking on his cellphone and ignored Chapello, who got angry and began yelling at the teen. Chapello then threw his police star to the ground, threatened to fight P.R., grabbed him by the throat and pushed him against the railing of the stoop. The stoop broke and P.R. fell to the ground. P.R.’s father, Pedro Rangel, came outside and found his son on the ground and asked the officer what happened. Chapello refused to tell him, then called for other officers to come to the scene. When the father kept asking for an explanation, the officers grabbed him, threw him to the ground, handcuffed him, hit and kicked him several times and arrested him.
(There were other cops involved)
JONATHAN WASHKEVICH
PO AS DETECTIVE
$32,500 total payments
He is still on the force but relegated to the registration unit, apparently.