Sex Offender Group Homes Are Cause For Concern, According To LA City Council

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Citing concerns over illegal residences that serve as group homes for sex offenders, the Los Angeles Police Department was asked Friday to look into what other cities are doing to house the criminals and, from that, increase its efforts to limit their concentration in certain areas.

The City Council's Public Safety Committee asked for the report in 60 days, prompted by concerns that some landlords have illegally been housing too many sex offenders, often near parks and schools.

"State law allows six or fewer, but we have some buildings with 20, 30 or 40 people living in a home," Councilman Mitch Englander said. "Many of them are sex offenders. We end up with some very shady characters that are housing these people. They don't register, and we need to look at a way we can provide protection for the community."

Capt. William Hayes, commanding officer of the Robbery-Homicide Division, said the LAPD has a program where it checks on sex offenders to make sure they are complying with the terms of their probation and that they have registered.

Of the 12,000 registered sex offenders believe to be living in Los Angeles, Hayes said last year the department reached out to more than 8,400.

In addition to routine compliance checks, he noted officers respond to citizen complaints regarding the housing of sex offenders. Procedurally, the department coordinates with Parole and Probation to ensure there is no over-saturation of sex offenders in a particular part of the city.

However, Hayes cautioned about creating too tight of a residency requirement that could render the offenders homeless and thus required to re-register every 30 days.

"Making it more stringent turns this population into transients rather than living in homes with specific addresses," Hayes said. "They can register as transients, but what that means is we have no idea where they are until they register again. And they can register anywhere in the state, so you don't know where they are." ___

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New Zealand Earthquakes 2013: Temblors Damage Homes And Destroy Bridge

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Strong earthquakes shook central New Zealand on Friday, damaging homes and roads and sending office workers scrambling for cover in the capital. No serious injuries were reported.

A magnitude-6.5 temblor struck just after 2:30 p.m. near the small South Island town of Seddon, and at least six aftershocks were 5.0 magnitude or stronger.

Several homes near the epicenter were severely damaged, with chimneys collapsing and roofs caving in, said police spokeswoman Barbara Dunn. She said a bridge was severely damaged on the main highway near Seddon, and that rocks and debris had fallen onto the road. Police closed a section of the highway.

Some buildings in Wellington, the capital, were evacuated, and items were knocked off shelves in places.

Police said a number of people were freed from Wellington elevators that stopped working. The initial temblor also forced the nation's stock exchange to close for more than an hour.

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said there was no major damage to the city's infrastructure or office buildings. She said highways had become clogged as people left the city.

"We think this is business as usual," she said, "but it is going to take a little while for people to get home tonight."

The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the initial temblor was 94 kilometers (58 miles) west of Wellington at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).

A quake of similar strength in the same area three weeks ago broke water mains, smashed windows and downed power lines.

Caroline Little, a seismologist with New Zealand quake monitoring agency GeoNet, said the series of quakes since July had followed an unusual pattern.

"Normally you get a big quake and then the aftershocks get smaller in magnitude," she said.

Little said the July quake was on a fault line near Seddon that had not previously been mapped. She said it was too early to determine if Friday's quakes were on that same fault.

A different fault line runs through Wellington, and many in the city fear an earthquake along that fault could result in a major disaster.

New Zealand is part of the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire" that has regular seismic activity. A severe earthquake in the city of Christchurch in 2011 killed 185 people and destroyed much of the city's downtown.

Local authorities issued no tsunami warnings after Friday's quakes.

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