Crime & Safety

Common Council Approves Change to Ordinance Governing Sex Offender Residency

Registered sex offenders can't be released into city unless they were not permanent resident at the time of their offense.

Registered sex offenders cannot be released into the city unless they were permanent residents of Waukesha at the time of their offense because the Common Council unanimously approved changing the city’s sex offender residency ordinance Tuesday night.

The ordinance passed quietly without comment on the Common Council’s consent agenda, which is approved unanimously without discussion. There was discussion held about the ordinance when it was considered at the March 7 Ordinance & License Committee meeting.

The changes will need to be brought back to the Common Council for additional readings before it becomes officially part of the municipal code book.

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The change, which is similar to an ordinance recently passed in Delafield, enacts more strict rules for residency. The city previously adopted a residency restriction that prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 750 feet of where children gather, such as schools and parks. Sex offenders also are forbidden from loitering within 750 feet of those areas.

Registered sex offenders are generally release to the county where they lived when they committed their crime. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections frequently places offenders in Waukesha because, as the county seat, the offenders will be closer to the central services.

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“I feel that we don’t need to be a dumping ground for these people just because we have the services,” said Alderman Steve Johnson, who brought the ordinance forward at the March 7 meeting.


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