Union County, Florida was next to pass harsh residency restrictions
Like Dominoes… Union County, Florida passed its 2500 foot Sex Offender Residency Restriction on the 15th of September. Union, which is the smallest county in the State, now has one of the harshest SORRs.
Of course, the SORR includes school bus stops, but among the other winners in this draconian ordinance is a prohibition on “traveling through” a buffer zone unless you are attending to a list of 7 exemptions. Not on the list of exemptions is stuff like shopping for groceries, going to the bank, getting a haircut, grabbing a coffee, getting gas, or going to church.
Naturally the ordinance does not require the county to paint lines or put up signs when you are entering within 2500 feet of one of these places, so it’ll be up to you to know where those 2500 foot circles are.
Let’s see which county is next!
You can read a copy of the ordinance here: Union County Ordinance 2025-04
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This crap reminds me of exactly what Seminole County has done. Does anyone know how many arrests Seminole has made since it wrote its own “no passing through” ordinance some time ago? I wonder if picking up groceries or going out to eat at a restaurant alone counts as “familial obligations”.
I think the focus should be on Union County’s ordinance. It has the same issue as Putnam’s, plus a lot more (even more vulnerable) restrictions. If the Union County ordinance falls, Putnam’s ordinance will surely end up being unenforceable.
How much are asking to raise for the legal battle Putnam if that’s correct?
I’ve never seen so many undocumented lies in one document. How do they get away with ridiculous statements about reoffending?!! It creates hopelessness for offenders and unfounded anxiety among residents.
This is written at a middle school level. They could have at least used Chat GPT to clean it up, and that’s not to mention the giant constitutional holes and misinformation that the entire ordinance is based on. I take nothing for granted, but on just the language of the ordinance itself it should be a slam dunk legal challenge.
This Ordinance is a mish mash and cannot stand the test of law. The wording is atrocious and the way the exemptions are written shows a lack of knowledge of the law. None of their travel through restrictions pass constitutional muster. Whats worse is that the ordinance is trying to usurp authority over State Property. While it frequently states that the recidivism is high (wrong) It also attempts to redefine the term Sex Offender to the Term Predator in Contrast to the definition in the Statutes. Union County has lost it’s mind.