House Bill 119, a state measure passed last year to prevent sex offenders from loitering near children, created an unintended loophole. It allowed the ex-cons to register
There are now 95 sex offenders in Broward registered as transient, says Deputy Michele Miller. That means they could live anywhere in a county of 1.8 million people. Deputies who are required to check on the offenders and make sure they are not living too close to a school are park don't know where to start looking.
"How am I going to find these people if I don't know where they're at?"
says John Bukata, the sheriff's district chief for Oakland Park.
Bukata says his team has found that some people who have a home list themselves as transient, just to avoid the cops. "People are learning there's a loophole with this," he says.
Sheriff Al Lamberti has asked local legislators to change the law, requiring offenders who are homeless to list a specific location where they sleep -- even if it's under a tree in Stranahan Park -- and then update that address every 30 days.
At a public hearing for the Broward legislative delegation last week, Rep. Hazelle Rogers said she will sponsor a bill to close the loophole, and colleagues such as Rep. Marty Kiar and Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff were eager to lend their support.
Deputy Miller admits this is not a perfect solution. It doesn't address the larger problem of sex offenders becoming homeless because they can't find a place to rent an apartment without being too close to children. And it certainly won't prevent former criminals from lying about where they sleep.
Still, Miller is hopeful that if offenders are required to list some address, the number of true transients will drop. "We need to know where they are," she says. "We're just trying to protect the community."
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