By Lori Carlson

Editor

Following news this week that a registered Level III sex offender was moving to Prior Lake, residents and city officials alike expressed concern about the state’s Rep. Mike
Beardcommunity-notification law.

“I was very disappointed that we received formal notification Monday when the person was moving into the city on Wednesday,” Mayor Jack Haugen said this week.

Police said they learned from the state Department of Corrections (DOC) on Monday that James Nicholas Dahlager, 26, had registered a new address in the 14000 block of Grayling Circle in Prior Lake and was moving in on Wednesday. That gave the city little time to notify neighbors before Dahlager’s actual move-in date.

“If the state law remains intact the way it is, it certainly ought to be modified to give cities time to communicate with their citizens,” Haugen said. “Otherwise, it’s gravely unfair to citizens.”

However, Police Chief Bill O’Rourke said knowing earlier wouldn’t have mattered much because the law gives cities 14 days to notify residents of the offender’s move.

State statute requires the DOC to report the offender’s information to local law enforcement within five days of learning the offender’s confirmed plans for permanent residence.

Rep. Mike Beard, R-Shakopee, said he and Sen. Claire Robling, R-Jordan, are considering drafting an amendment to require a seven- to 10-day window between the time the DOC notifies local law enforcement and the time a Level III offender actually moves.

But the sex offender notification law “is not a criminal law,” Beard said. “It’s almost like a recommendation from the Legislature on how to work with local jurisdictions. That puts police departments in an awkward spot.”

The law, originally passed in 1997 and amended in 1999 and 2002, requires notification to local officials for Level III offenders. As offenders approach release from prison, a committee assesses their likelihood to re-offend. Level III offenders are the most likely to re-offend.

The law does not specify a radius of notification; it simply says law enforcement must notify residents “in the area” that a Level III offender is moving in. “It doesn’t say how to notify them, either,” Beard said.

Haugen said he talked to Beard this week regarding the law.

“I talked to him about our frustrations about notification,” Haugen said. “I also have had several conversations with residents in the neighborhood.”

Some residents have asked Haugen and other City Council members whether Prior Lake would pass an ordinance similar to one adopted in Taylors Falls, Annandale and Wyoming, Minn. Those cities have passed ordinances prohibiting Level III sex offenders – those deemed most likely to re-offend – from living a certain distance (in some cases 1,000 feet, in others 2,000 feet) from where children gather: playgrounds, parks, schools, day care centers and churches.

On Thursday, Haugen said the city attorney currently is researching the Taylors Falls ordinance. “In lieu of this, we will be looking at all options,” he said.

But Haugen acknowledged that state law does not allow police or government to dictate where a sex offender can and cannot live.

“We cannot pass an ordinance that would be in violation of state law,” he said.

Beard agreed.

“We really can’t have cities doing that,” he said. “We’re dealing with human beings who have sinned grievously and have paid their society-imposed sentence. They’ve got to be able to come back into society and get a job and put their lives back together.”

Still, Beard said he understand that crimes against children “touch a raw nerve.

“It’s something we take very gravely. It’s something the Legislature tried to do when it created the [risk] levels.”

Beard said society can’t live like the characters in the Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report,” in which potential criminals are caught for crimes before they commit them.

“That’s sci-fi, but we deal in reality here,” Beard said. “We can’t arrest or hold people in jail because we think they might break the law. That’s an Orwellian society we don’t want to live in.”

Lori Carlson can be reached at (952) 345-6378 or editor@plamerican.com.