Aldermen seek to zone out sex offenders

May 14 -- Sex offenders would be prohibited from living near parks, schools, day care centers, golf courses, swimming pools or movie theaters, under an ordinance proposed by two city aldermen.

The ordinance, proposed by Alderneb Jim Bohl and Joe Dudzik, is similar to zoning laws enacted elsewhere around the country. Those laws are being challenged in court and raising concerns among law enforcement officials, according to stateline.org.

The proposed Milwaukee ordinance, to be considered Thursday by the Common Council's Public Safety Committee, generally would probit anyone convicted of a variety of sex crimes from living within 2,000 feet of places where children can be expected to be found.

"Sex offenders are a serious threat to public safety," according to the proposed ordinance. "When sex offenders re-enter society, they are much more likely than any other type of offender to be re-arrested for a new rape or sexual assault. Given the high rate of recidivism for sex offenders and that reducing opportunity and temptation is important to minimizing the risk of re-offense, there is a need to protect children where they congregate or play in public places in addition to the protections afforded by state law near schools, day care centers and other places children frequent."

The ordinance does, however, include exceptions that would allow offenders to vote or attend church under certain circumstances.

stateline.org reported in December that similar laws in several states are under legal challenge.

In addition, it said, Kansas decided against adopting strict residency restrictions after reviewing evidence that neighboring Iowa’s zoning law had doubled the number of sex offenders unaccounted for since the law took effect in 2005.

Wisconsin sex offenders can be mapped and tracked here.

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