We’ve made some stunning discoveries about where sex offenders in the Capital City live and why the law can’t touch them. We used a GPS tracker to measure distance and we paired it with the sex offender online database and couldn’t believe what we found. Convicted sex offenders are living less than 500 feet from schools and daycares, all because of a loophole in the current laws.
We went to a number of daycares and schools with a GPS tracker device. We found one sex offender just 216 feet from the school and authorities say it’s all perfectly legal. Besides the sex offender living so close to Banks Elementary, off Florida Blvd. near a daycare, we found a sex offender with a conviction for lewd and lascivious behavior with a child under 14. On Greenwell Springs Rd., there was another daycare within 1,000 feet of a man convicted for carnal knowledge of a juvenile on two separate occasions.
So why aren’t these sex offenders breaking any laws? They were all convicted before 2006. Markus Smith with Louisiana State Police explains, “If an offender was convicted before that date, then they aren’t required to comply with the 1,000 foot law.” This is a loophole in a law designed to protect our kids, but some say it’s letting certain offenders slip through the cracks.
The date isn’t the only loophole. Offenders must have committed certain crimes and victim must be under the age of 13 or they must be on probation.
No comments:
Post a Comment