Brooklyn Park Police are spearheading efforts to remove sex offenders from city neighborhoods.
Currently, Brooklyn Park is home to the highest number of level-three sex offenders in Hennepin County outside of Minneapolis, with a total of about 20.
That's because unlike other nearby cities, there are no restrictions on how many offenders can live there. It's an issue inspector Matt Rabe with Brooklyn Park Police says he brought directly to the city council.
"I would expect that if the ordinance is enacted, those level-three predatory offenders would eventually move out and we would have some limitations on where new ones live when they move in," Rabe explains.
He says many of the offenders live in the one of the city's 450 group homes and even under an new ordinance they would be allowed to stay. But it would prevent more from moving in.
There is a meeting between the council and the department scheduled for early May to strategize what the final ordinance could look like.
Rabe says he believes the issue is directly linked to that large number of group homes operating in the city.
"I looked in our data and I found out 50% of our level-three predatory offenders were living in group homes," He says. "And that led me down the path of reaching out to the city council, making them aware of this issue."
He says the council intends to pass something by the end of the year.