Residents all across our great state care deeply about protecting innocent children. That’s true especially in Franklin that historically originated the crusading fight to safeguard our most precious  commodity with successful ordinances that were copied by well over 100 other municipalities across Wisconsin, all in the name of their children.

Here in Franklin and all across the state local municipalities have enacted local laws that have effectively protected kids from sex offenders. Local police departments have kept records that demonstrate how efficient these laws have been.

In September of 2015 Franklin Mayor Steve Olson wrote a letter to some members of the state Assembly that read in part:

The City of Franklin has been at the forefront of protecting its’ youngest citizens from sex offenders. We were the first city in the state to enact thoughtful and fair residency restrictions on convicted sex offenders in 2007. Our ordinance (attached) has been used by a large number of communities throughout the state as the model for their own ordinances.

Franklin crafted our ordinance to protect our children from the threat of sex offenders. We held four public hearings and debated at length the protection zones as well as the distances we felt we needed to protect our children given our community make up and geography. We did our research and we balanced our efforts to protect our children with
the rights of sex offenders. We felt it important to be responsible and have areas available to accommodate sex offenders.

We were also the first community to prosecute (and defend) our ordinance. Our ordinance and several others across the state have been held to be enforceable and constitutional.

Those who’ve been closely involved with this issue know that despite our past successes, the fight never ends. Here’s yet another reason.

WFRV-TV in Green Bay did an investigative report about how some judges aren’t following the law that requires released offenders be sent back to the communities they came from.

The video of their report is here.