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Enforcement is as important as the laws The Amityville Village Board is considering enacting its own law to restrict the locations where convicted violent sexual felons can live in the Village. Like the existing state and county laws, this would prohibit them from living within a proposed distance from locations where children congregate such as schools, parks, nursery schools etc. Currently, the state and county laws are about as strict as they can get without virtually "outlawing" these individuals from an entire community. That, of course, would not withstand a legal challenge. Therefore, we believe a Village law could provide no more protection than is already enacted. Instead, we believe the Village should address one of the most obvious weaknesses of this law, which is enforcement. With regularity, we read about instances in which these felons are living in homes in violation of the restrictions, sometimes with other sexual predators. The Megan's Law website, which is designed to provide the public with information about where these felons live within their communities, is often out-of-date or inaccurate.
Instead of heaping another law upon two perfectly adequate statutes, Amityville residents would be better served by a local measure that would put into place a regular monitoring system of those individuals who locate within our communities. Without that component, the restrictions are meaningless and provide no adequate security to the children they are designed to protect.
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