Brooklyn Park Considers New Ordinance for Level 3 Sex Offenders
A proposed new ordinance in Brooklyn Park could limit where predatory sex offenders can live.
The Brooklyn Park City Council approved a first reading of the policy on Monday.
If approved on a second reading, it would make it illegal for a Level 3 predatory sex offender to live within 500 feet of a park or a playground.
It would also prohibit predatory offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, place of worship or another predatory offender.
The state deems Level 3 offenders as the most likely to reoffend.
“The goal is not to make people homeless,” said Brooklyn Park police Inspector Matt Rabe. “If a Level 3 predatory offender then becomes homeless, they’re probably at greater risk of reoffense, which of course would put society at greater risk. So there is an exception if someone is [a minor] living with a family member.”
According to Rabe, the city has 21 registered Level 3 sex offenders. That puts the city among the highest in Hennepin County, coming in after Minneapolis, which has 121 offenders.
A proposed new ordinance in Brooklyn Park could limit where predatory sex offenders can live.
By contrast, Maple Grove and Brooklyn Center have two each.
Police believe the higher concentration of offenders is partly due to the large number of group homes in Brooklyn Park. There’s about 450 group homes in the city. Some of those facilities offer transitional housing for people leaving incarceration.
Offenders that violate the ordinance could face a misdemeanor charge and be sentenced to up to a year in jail or face a fine.
“The process will be, it goes to our detectives that handle this,” Rabe said. “They look at the map and they say, ‘nope, that’s not going to work. You can’t move here.’ And so hopefully we stop it before it even gets to that point.”
The ordinance also makes it illegal to knowingly rent a residence, including a trailer or mobile structure, to a Level 3 sex offender within a restricted area.
