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Committee widens park restrictions for level‑3 and level‑4 sex offenders to include public parks and water features
Summary
House Bill 1437 was recommended for passage after debate about how broadly "public park" and "swimming area" should be read; the bill extends a 100‑foot exclusion zone for certain registered sex offenders around defined water features, playgrounds and water parks in public parks rather than only Arkansas State Parks.
The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended passage of House Bill 1437 after an extended discussion about the bill’s scope and definitions. The sponsor, Rep. Duffield, said the bill was prompted by law‑enforcement requests after incidents near community splash pads and water features.
Rep. Duffield told the committee the bill makes it unlawful for a person required to register under the sex‑offender registration act of 1997 and assessed as a level‑3 or level‑4 offender to knowingly enter within 100 feet of certain public features. "This bill essentially does is it prohibits registered... level 3 and 4... It keeps them from coming 100 feet within these areas," Duffield said.
Committee members debated the statute’s coverage. Questions focused on whether the change expands restrictions beyond Arkansas State Parks to all public parks, whether defined "swimming areas" or water parks (and how those are defined) would include rivers like the Buffalo River, and whether the measure effectively imposes long‑term location limits on people who have served sentences. A staff or sponsor reading of the draft clarified the bill replaces the phrase "Arkansas State Park" with "public park" and adds water park and swimming area language so the exclusion applies to those features where defined in the law.
Senators asked about federal lands (for example, national parks and the Buffalo National River) and enforcement; counsel and members noted the state may have limited enforcement authority on federal property. Supporters said prosecutors back the bill but several members said they wanted additional vetting and data on recidivism and counts of affected offenders. The committee approved the bill by voice vote.
The transcript records statutory references (including a code citation read aloud) and multiple senators’ questions and concerns about scope, enforcement, and proportionality.
