Brooklyn Center imposes moratorium on sex-offender placements

Alarmed by a surge in the number of Level 3 predatory sex offenders who have moved to Brooklyn Center, the City Council has passed a 120-day moratorium severely limiting where these high-risk offenders can live.

Six Level 3 sex offenders now live in the inner-ring suburb. Most moved in this year.

The council's action could head off the arrival of two more sex offenders who recently revealed their intention to move to Brooklyn Center.

It also comes just days before a federal judge is poised to issue a ruling that could overhaul the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, which indefinitely confines 720 rapists and pedophiles to treatment centers. U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank has already declared the program unconstitutional, and many offenders could be released.

Brooklyn Center Mayor Tim Willson said the city of 30,000 has more Level 3 offenders than any other Hennepin County suburb and that he and the council want to reverse that trend.

"We appear to be the wrong side of the tracks for the metro — the dumping ground for the metro," Willson said. "What I see happening to the community has me very concerned."

He and the council passed the new temporary limits of sex offender placement with terse words for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, which they believe is partly responsible for the increased number of placements.

A Department of Corrections spokeswoman said it's a coincidence that two Level 3 offenders have made plans in the past week to move to Brooklyn Center.

Offenders do have some say in where they live, said spokeswoman Sarah Latuseck.

"Offenders being released from prison to community supervision are responsible for finding their own residence, and work with their facility case manager and assigned corrections agent, who approve or deny the residence based on the offender's conditions of release and supervision requirements," Latuseck said in an e-mail.

She didn't say whether the Department of Corrections would challenge the city's moratorium, but said such policies make it more difficult to keep tabs on offenders.

"In general, residency restrictions and city ordinances such as these interfere with the safe and effective supervision of sex offenders," she wrote. "Restrictions can increase homelessness and decrease the support systems that are essential in helping keep an offender from committing a new crime."

Under Brooklyn Center's new temporary rules, Level 3 offenders must live at least 2,000 feet from a school, park or other place where children congregate. Until now, the city did not have an ordinance restricting offenders' location.

The 120 days will give city leaders time to examine the causes and effect of the uptick and to draft an ordinance that would permanently limit where sex offenders can reside, officials said.

All offenders who are required to register as sex offenders are assigned a level when they leave prison. Level 3, considered the highest risk to reoffend, triggers community notification.

Willson said Brooklyn Center's lawyers have reviewed the moratorium and they believe they're on firm legal footing.

In the meantime, the police chief will lead a study on Level 3 offender placement in the city. Questions to be explored, he said, will include: Why are they choosing Brooklyn Center? Are they reoffending? Are they required to have regular contact with police?

"It's becoming almost a full-time job to do the mailers and get the information out to citizens," he said. "We had to take action."

Gannon said it's unclear why sex offenders are eyeing Brooklyn Center in greater numbers. Only one of the six who have settled there had ties to the community, he said.

"It would make sense if they are coming home to Mom and Dad. That is not the case," he said. "… Many of these predatory offenders could not point out Brooklyn Center on a map."

Affordable housing, access to public transportation and its proximity to Minneapolis could all be factors, he said. But other inner-ring suburbs that offer such amenities have not seen an increase.

"Why does it constantly seem to be Brooklyn Center?" he said. "Our citizens were getting more and more upset with the number of meetings we were having. … it just gets to a tipping point."