TWENTYNINE PALMS CITY COUNCIL TO CHANGE SEX OFFENDER RESTRICTIONS

The Twentynine Palms City Council will be tackling a thorny issue at tonight’s meeting, namely residential restrictions imposed on registered sex offenders. Reporter David Haldane explains…
If you’re a sex offender in Twentynine Palms, you can rest easy; after tonight’s City Council meeting you’ll likely be able to live where you want.
That’s because the Council will be considering the repeal of a local ordinance forbidding registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school, park or day care center or even being within 300 feet.
The ordinance, enacted in 2008, was designed, its framers said, “to protect children from registered sex offenders by limiting their access to where children gather.”
But a 2015 California Supreme Court decision struck down a similar law in San Diego County. And three months ago, Twentynine Palms received a letter from a Sacramento lawyer promising a lawsuit if the city doesn’t comply.
Residency restrictions, the lawyer argued, “contradict decades of research demonstrating that when sex offenders return to communities,” they are less likely to re-offend.”