Revised New Port Richey Sexual Offender Law Set for June Adoption

A proposed New Port Richey ordinance seeks to plug a "void" in state statutes by mandating that all newcomers convicted of sexual crimes elsewhere register with city police and comply with city residency prohibitions -- even if they were not required to do so in their former jurisdictions.

The on Tuesday unanimously approved a draft version of the ordinance. It will be presented for formal adoption on June 7.

Florida law prohibits those convicted of sexual crimes from living within 1,000 feet of any school, day care center, church, park or playground. New Port Richey is among more than 60 Florida municipalities with a 2,500-foot residency prohibition.

However, Chief Jeffrey Harrington said, in reviewing state statutes, "there seemed to be a void" in requiring sexual offenders who move to Florida from other states, or even into the city from other Florida jurisdictions, to register with local law enforcement agencies and comply with local residency restrictions.

The proposed revision to the city's 2005 sexual offender registry ordinance requires "people convicted of similar (sexual) offenses in other jurisdictions" to comply with the ordinance's 2,500-foot prohibition.

To ensure they are not living within 2,500 feet of a school, day care center, church, park or playground, those convicted of sexual crimes must register with city police.

The revision "includes language that was missing" from the 2005 ordinance, Councilwoman said.

However, she added, since "we don't live in a police state," there is still no way for city police -- or any law enforcement agency -- to know who and where sexual offenders are if they move to Florida from a state that doesn't require them to register in their new jurisdiction.

The new ordinance is fine, Delaware Avenue resident Tom Harris told the council, but it still doesn't answer the question he asked them in March about sexual offenders in the city:  "Are you going to do something?"

A former law enforcement officer who moved to New Port Richey with his wife, Donna, and their three children, Harris has been lobbying for a crackdown on sexual offenders tracked by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, not only on those from other states.

"This could be a 'Mayberry' if we took the trash out," he said.

Harris said two years ago, there were 18 people identified by the FDLE as sexual offenders living in the city. The FDLE's email notification system alerted him about five times a year to new arrivals in the city convicted of sexual crimes, he said.

"Now it's 25 to 30 a year," Harris said. "It's doubling every year. Seventy-five predators and offenders have moved into the city in the last two years. They are not registering. There are more and more coming here all the time, and I don't want them here."

On March 15, Harris that there were "several" sexual predators living "across the street" from .

Since then, on April 11, a man wanted for lewd and lascivious battery -- a sexual crime -- was accused of shooting his sister in the leg in front of her three children in an Illinois Avenue duplex, directly across from the middle school.    

"No one knew he was there," Harris said.

But the FDLE and school resource officers at Gulf Middle School know there are other sexual offenders living in the vicinity, Donna Harris said, including one "who sits right across from the school" from another state who "doesn't have to abide by Florida law."

Harris said extending the 2,500-foot buffer to 3,000 feet is inadequate. "Adding another 500 feet won't matter," he said, unless the city police enforce the residency restrictions.

The 2,500-foot prohibition already leaves few places in the 4-square-mile city where sexual offenders can legally live, council members noted.

"New Port Richey is so small," Councilman mused, "if we made (the 2,500-foot prohibition) more than what it is" no one convicted of a sexual crime could live in the city.

"That's kind of the idea," Harris urged from his seat in the audience.

"It would be instructive to see a map with 2,500-foot circles around every school and church," Deputy Mayor said. "That would pretty much cover the whole city, with a few exceptions."

"I am all for that," Harris cheered.

Story updated at 10:34 am, May 19