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Miami Beach ban on offenders copied

Limits set for sex offenders cover almost the whole city. A New Jersey community follows suit; others consider them.

MIAMI BEACH - Completing a move that has drawn nationwide interest, Miami Beach city commissioners gave final approval Wednesday to a law that will keep sex offenders from moving within 2,500 feet of schools, day care facilities and parks - a ban covering nearly the entire city.

The law will not affect 30 sex offenders already living on the narrow barrier island, city spokesman John Heffernan said.

"It's generated an enormous amount of interest around the state and across the country," said Mayor David Dermer.

After learning about Dermer's idea, Hamilton Township, N.J., approved a 2,500-foot sex-offender-free zone May 17. A day later, Davie, about 20 miles north of Miami Beach, also passed a 2,500-foot buffer.

More than 40 municipalities have requested information from Miami Beach about the ordinance.

"What's happening is really a shame," said Grier Weeks, executive director of Protect, a nonpartisan children's advocacy group based in Asheville, N.C. "Communities are being forced into changing zoning ordinances and doing things they really shouldn't have to do because state and local jurisdictions refuse to adequately contain and monitor convicted sex offenders."

Fourteen states, including Florida, have buffer zones that prohibit sex offenders from living close to places where children congregate. They mostly range from 1,000 to 2,000 feet.

But after Florida was shocked by the kidnappings and murders of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford and 13-year-old Sarah Lunde, some cities wanted to take extra precautions.

Dermer said he decided to press for a stricter sex offender residency ordinance after realizing that Florida law imposed only a 1,000-foot limit, compared with a 2,500-foot buffer between schools and stores selling sex paraphernalia.

"The focus has to be to do everything that we can to keep these convicted sex offenders and predators as far from our children as possible," he said.

The Miami Beach ordinance prohibits convicted sex offenders whose victims were under 16 from living within 2,500 feet of any school, school bus stop, day care center, park or playground. It provides exemptions for sex offenders already living in the city, minors prosecuted as juveniles and people who stay there less than two weeks.

But others said the laws are simply common sense.

"Is it really safe for a pedophile who is known and convicted to live right across the street from a public school?" said Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law.

[Last modified June 9, 2005, 01:16:07]