Tampa residents do not understand the root cause of the clustering of people on the sex offender registry
At the October 19 Tampa City Council meeting, Dr. Bryanna Fox, a professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida, was able to help the city commissioners understand that SORN is a complete failure.
But unfortunately, the council members do not understand that the state residency restrictions are what is causing the clustering problem. Some council members, though, did suggest that if the cause of the clustering problem is state statutes, then possibly the Tampa council members need to reach out to the state to let them know the problems the statutes are causing for Tampa.
This is what we want to happen: for city and county governments to let our Florida leaders know that some of their statutes are making things worse, not better.
As FOX 13 News stated, even the Tampa Police Department “has identified only three limited areas in Tampa with low-income housing where sex offenders are permitted to live due to 1000-foot residency restrictions.”
Mentioned in the FOX 13 article is that the current occupancy levels at the boarding houses being used to house registered citizens contradicts the Florida Fire Prevention Code’s “Rooming House” definition (maximum occupancy of 16). At the October 19 council meeting, the city attorney stated that the boarding houses are not violating the fire code. It has been determined that these facilities can hold up to 30 people, so they are meeting the guidelines, and this is one less argument that the people of Ybor can use against the clustering in their neighborhood.
Ybor wants to “rectify the systemic practice of disproportionately directing parolees, advocating for a more balanced regional approach.” The solution is to put pressure on the Florida legislature to repeal the 1000-foot residency restriction and disallow residency restrictions anywhere in the state.
There are other states that do not have residency restrictions, and their sex offense rates are not higher than Florida’s.
The Ybor Neighborhood Association president sent a letter to council members requesting the following actions:
- Engage proactively with the Department of Corrections and FDLE to rectify the systemic practice of disproportionately directing parolees, advocating for a more balanced regional approach. (SOLUTION: REPEAL STATE RESIDENCY RESTRICTIONS)
- Vigorously enforce existing occupancy, building, and zoning codes, adhering to the Florida Fire Prevention Code and City of Tampa Ordinances. (CITY ATTORNEY SAID IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT THE BOARDING HOUSES ARE FOLLOWING CODE.)
- Ensure strict compliance with life safety and construction requirements as outlined in the Florida Fire Prevention Code and the Florida Building Code for rooming houses (or hotels). (CITY ATTORNEY SAID THAT THEY ARE UP TO CODE.)
- Enforce the stipulations within city of Tampa ordinances, Chapter19 and 27, encompassing plumbing fixture counts and minimum space allocations per lodging unit. (YBOR IS NOW BECOMING DESPERATE FOR AN EXCUSE TO CLOSE DOWN THESE BOARDING HOUSES.)
- Task code enforcement with guaranteeing that property owners providing housing for felons, sex offenders and predators uphold the highest standards of safety, and cleanliness, in accordance with legal requirements.” (WE HOPE THAT ALL RENTALS UPHOLD THE HIGHEST STANDARDS OF SAFETY AND CLEANLINESS.)
Since the council members were confused on how to move forward with Ybor residents’ demands, a workshop will be held on November 30 to discuss the matter. Soon we will be asking FAC members to help inform the council members of the state statute causing their problem.
if perhaps they would take up issue with state about other communities creating a larger then 1000 ft barrier therefor forcing people to find housing in other cities is not the answer and make the communities only use 1000 ft. and no more that would be a start.
Hi Nono. Please contact your county coordinator to find out how YOU can help. We made a lot of progress and we are not going to back down from this!
Also remember some fall under the 2004 rule, which means you can live without residency restrictions in counties that only follow state guidelines. I believe your case needed to be before 2004 for it to apply to you. You may need to consult an attorney.
The neighbors might have a legitimate complaint about safety if the number of sex offenses in the neighborhood had increased with the increased number of registrants. It is a good bet that has not happened. This cluster “experiment” actually helps make the case that released sex offenders don’t need to be feared or subjected to residency restrictions. The Ybor neighborhood has had an increase in fear, but not in actual danger.
I live in one of those states with no residency restrictions, and we don’t have an epidemic of children being assaulted on the street. Most of our assaults happen in homes and at schools.
After watching the meeting, the town is caught in a catch 22. The town can’t go lower than the state mandated 1,000 foot rule so it as low as it can possibly go. So the only two options would be to look at the county ordinances and walk back the bus stops and library etc sections if they have those restrictions on the books to open up other parts of the city. The other option is to close the boarding houses. Let’s hope the latter doesn’t happen. But this could be our opportunity to flood the county meeting with our opinions on how the city government should also help ask Tallahassee to do away with residency restrictions which would stop clustering.
I don’t believe in SORNA or anything associated with it because the data doesn’t support it but unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what the Florida legislature [moderated] thinks and they think they want to get re-elected. They are not going to go from current restrictions to NO restrictions in one go because it would be political suicide for most of them. But legislators might be convinced residency restrictions are causing issues and some changes necessary and as such, FAC and others need to prioritize their requested changes because partial relief is better than no relief.
I personally think permanently preempting all county/city SORNA laws/regulations should be the highest priority as we have counties and cities using arbitrary distances as nothing more than NIMBY regulations. I realize that wouldn’t help Tampa but it would sure help a lot of areas in the State. Secondary to that would be a reduction in the distance from 1000′ to 500′ or 250′ however, any distance is completely arbitrary and perhaps moving to a non-distance standard would be easier to pass. Simply not allowing a registrant to reside on property that is contiguous to schools, daycares, etc. would give a lot of relief.
“”As FOX 13 News stated, even the Tampa Police Department “has identified only three limited areas in Tampa with low-income housing where sex offenders are permitted to live due to 1000-foot residency restrictions.”
Once again, ‘geographical incarceration’.
6 years ago///////REALLY????????????????????
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zoMJzwvFRY
The registry is flat out illegal as it is implemented. It does not objectively serve or meet the purpose of protecting the public. That makes it illegal. End of story. As well prohibiting residence in certain areas is illegal as well unless it’s part of their sentence, or probation, or if being on the registry is/was part of their sentence. In most cases it was not. The registry has run afoul of being a statutory regulatory scheme designed to protect the public, and is instead an entirely perpetually punitive regime. Completely unconstitutional and illegal.