FL- EDITORIAL: Draw line on sex offenders

8-11-2009 Florida:

Florida politicians are so worried about looking soft on sex offenders that the state is running the risk of not being smart about sex offenders.

In two stories, one last month and one last week, Post reporter John Lantigua examined the community of registered sex offenders who live under interstate highway bridges in Miami. They live there because it's the only piece of real estate that complies with all the local ordinances preventing sex offenders from living within certain distances of schools, day care centers, parks or playgrounds. Under state law, that distance has to be 1,000 feet. But cities in Miami-Dade, like some in this area, have established 2,500-foot boundaries. In Dade, that has left only the areas under the bridges as a legal residence.

Let's get the basics out of the way early. No, we don't believe that the state should coddle sex offenders. Yes, we understand why many people believe that living in conditions that resemble Somalia befits sex offenders. We get all that.

The danger, though, is that if Florida gives sex offenders no reasonable place to live within the rules, they will ignore the rules. They will move. They won't report where they are living. The state will lose track of them. In early 2005, the Citrus County Sheriff's Office had lost track of John Evander Couey, a registered sex offender. In March of that year, he killed a 9-year-old girl named Jessica Lunsford. Her name went on a law toughening rules on sex offenders.

It's understandable that governments would try to out-tough each other on sex offenders. As the state's sheriffs pointed out last year, though, it's also potentially self-defeating. In 2008, the sheriffs backed a bill by Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, that would make the boundary 1,500 feet statewide. It passed the Senate 39-0 but died in the House, killed by Miami-area legislators who were worried about looking ... well, you know.

Sen. Aronberg filed the bill again this year. It went nowhere. He said in an interview that he plans to introduce the legislation again next year. Since Sen. Aronberg is running for attorney general, also in 2010, he clearly doesn't see the bill as politically damaging. Mr. Lantigua reported that Tallahassee lobbyist Ron Book - whose daughter was sexually molested - has led the push to expand the boundaries. Sen. Aronberg said that Mr. Book now supports a statewide standard.

In responding to a terrible crime, Florida has at times overreached. The push to fingerprint everyone on the grounds of a school, which was part of the Jessica Lunsford Act, was unworkable. With Florida's registered sex offenders, the state needs to focus less on their living conditions and more on where they live. ..Palm Beach Post Editorial..