At tomorrow's General Meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are expected to come together and vote unanimously to approve a law authored by Majority Leader Jon Cooper (D-Huntington) that would prohibit the most dangerous sex offenders from lurking where children gather. This would make Suffolk the first County in the state to protect children by passing an anti-loitering law that specifically targets child sexual predators.
New York State law already prohibits any person from loitering near a school. Cooper's law specifically targets Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders, the most dangerous and also the most likely to re-offend. It prevents them from loitering near playgrounds, day care centers, public swimming pools, youth centers and video arcades. Violators would be guilty of a misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail. This initiative follows up on Cooper's earlier law that makes it a felony for any sex offender to take up residence within a quarter mile of schools, day care centers and playgrounds.
"We have many cases where sex offenders loiter in places where children gather," says Laura Ahearn, Executive Director of Parents for Megan's Law. "This new law will give police more authority to restrict sexual predators from grooming potential victims."
Cooper decided to pen the groundbreaking legislation after several parents expressed their concerns that, despite the slew of new sex offender residency restriction bills that followed his, nothing could be done if a known sexual predator was seen lurking near a playground or other locale where children regularly congregate.
While Cooper is proud that Suffolk is on the verge of becoming the first County in New York to enact a broad anti-loitering law for sex offenders, San Diego County (CA) and several other municipalities across the nation already have similar laws on the books.
"Prudence demands that we prevent convicted sex offenders from loitering in places frequented by large numbers of children," says Cooper. "As a father of five, I believe we need to do everything possible to protect our kids from sexual predators."
