With the stroke of Mayor Barrett's pen, Milwaukee has its own sex offender residency law
New law restricts where sex offenders can live in Milwaukee
New law restricts where sex offenders can live in Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has signed a new sex offender ordinance -- passed by Milwaukee's Common Council last week. The ordinance restricts where sex offenders can live -- keeping them away from schools, parks and daycares. But a Milwaukee alderman says he's worried they'll all now be living in his district.
The Milwaukee Common Council passed the ordinance one week ago -- on Tuesday, July 22nd -- limiting where sex offenders can live to just a handful of places within the city.
They will no longer be allowed to live within 2,000 feet of schools, parks, daycare centers, playgrounds and recreational trails -- as well as any other place where the city says children are known to gather.
The red and orange on this map shows where sex offenders cannot live. Any area that is not colored, is where sex offenders can reside.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says this move was needed to keep the city from becoming a dumping ground for all of Milwaukee County's sex offenders.
"The state of Wisconsin places these individuals by county. Not by municipality -- by county," Mayor Barrett said.
Right now, more than 85 percent of sex offenders in Milwaukee County live in the city of Milwaukee. That's a percentage that's gone up in recent years because of residency restrictions in nearby municipalities.
"If other municipalities were not allowing these individuals to come in, that they would, because they had to under state law -- place them in the county where the individual resided or where the offense took place, they would place them in the city of Milwaukee," Mayor Barrett said.
But now, Milwaukee has its own sex offender residency ordinance.
Milwaukee Alderman Terry Witkowski opposed the ordinance because it means only a handful of districts have places eligible to house sex offenders. He was worried about them concentrating in his district -- and worked to reduce the number of places they could live.
"The number of places where people could live, sex offenders could live in Milwaukee under this ordinance went from 397 down to 117," Alderman Witkowski said.
Alderman Witkowski's district is still left with about 20 percent of the eligible sex offender locations.
While they're on different sides when it comes to this ordinance, both Alderman Witkowski and Mayor Barrett say they hope it sends a message to Madison that the state should be stepping in on this issue.
In fact, Mayor Barrett has drafted a letter on this issue to the Secretary of the Department of Corrections. He says one way the state could handle this issue is to return sex offenders to the municipality where they came from.
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