A bill that makes it illegal for sex offenders to loiter at public libraries passed unopposed through the Senate Judiciary committee Tuesday morning. Senate Bill 125 amends current legislation preventing adult sex offenders from loitering in community safety zones such as public schools or parks. Rapid City Police Chief Steve Allender says there was a situation in Rapid City where a well-known sex offender eventually had to be banned from the library because of inappropriate behavior.
“The issue was that the library staff felt so uncomfortable with this type of intervention that they felt they needed help with legislation or help making policies to give them more of a standing on the subject. We worked with them, we checked with a number of libraries around the state. The problem is not isolated to Rapid City, we found the problem exists in a number of libraries across our state,” Allender says.
Other supporters of the legislation say the focus is on creating safe environments for children. The measure does not prevent registered sex offenders from going to a library to check out books or conduct other business, but it draws the line when the individual seems to be there to observe children. No opponents spoke against the bill, but Senator Jean Hunhoff says she’s worried about completely removing sex offenders from society. Senate Bill 125 now heads to the full Senate for debate.