KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
The Santa Clarita City Council voted Tuesday to repeal an ordinance which limits registered sex offenders from living near schools or parks, and is seeking alternatives to the measure, which was ruled unconstitutional.
City Attorney Joseph Montes advised the council to repeal the current ordinance due to the ruling that the ordinances were unconstitutional, reminding the council that there were still laws in effect that would affect sex offenders.
In 2015, the California Supreme Court ruled the ordinance unconstitutional on the grounds that sex offenders had up to a 24 times increase in the number of sex offenders identifying as homeless just in the time period since Jessica’s Law had been enacted.
The courts found that homelessness among sex offenders actually posed a greater danger to the public, stating that the residency restrictions hampered efforts to monitor, supervise and rehabilitate sex offenders, and thus did not serve the State’s ultimate goal of protecting children, according to officials.
Lt. Justin Diez (left) and Capt. Robert Lewis (right) discuss how the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station tracks registered sex offenders.
In March 2019, the City of Santa Clarita was served with a lawsuit challenging the city’s residency restrictions for sex offenders based on the same issues raised in the California Supreme Court case.
“Any action to repeal the ordinance does not effectively change how the City of Santa Clarita deals with sex offenders,” said City Manager Ken Striplin. “The action simply repeals the ordinance that has been ruled unconstitutional; the laws that are currently being enforced will continue to be enforced.”
Originally, California voters passed Proposition 82, known as “Jessica’s Law,” in November 2006.
After the passage of Jessica’s Law, the City of Santa Clarita adopted an ordinance to prohibit any registered sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of a school, park, library or child care center. The City’s ordinance also restricted sex offenders from living with each other in the same residence or unit of a multi-unit building.
The California Supreme Court found the restrictions to be unconstitutional due to being too restrictive in terms of where sex offenders could live, and thus violated the basic constitutional liberty rights of sex offenders, according to City officials.
Santa Clarita’s ordinance is even more restrictive than the laws that the California Supreme Court found to be too restrictive, City officials said in a statement.
This conclusion was based in part on studies and reports released after the passage of Jessica’s Law indicating that such residency restrictions have not improved public safety, according to court documents.
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Like we say, we care about our babies what a lier we are. We care more for sexual predators.
The least Tiburcio could do is learn to spell the word liar.
At any rate, residency restriction laws do not work and anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
Of course they work…. they provide a platform for elected officials to sound all caring and get re-elected, they let the public feel morally superior about their own criminal past (many many have one) and give them the impression that they are good parents, and they appear to keep one’s property value high by banishing certain people from town – which would not be a problem in the first place if this particular group were allowed reintegration like any oh, murderer, wife beater, meth cook, drunk driver, etc can.
Hellaya – I’ll say they “work”!
So glad to hear this, it’s about time sex offenders who by the way get the same punishnent and predjuice whether you are low risk or high risk get a bit of a break.