Interview with Nassau County Legislator Kevan Abrahams

By Nicole Vella

“What prompted you to begin the legislation that prevents sex offenders from residing close to schools playgrounds and parks?”

Kevan Abrahams: “Well generally what prompted me to begin the legislation in regards to sex offenders is I found out that most of the sex offenders that do reside in the county reside in my legislative district as well as the neighboring district. There was 17 in my legislative district, alone and from that standpoint I felt the need to try to protect the public and the children that could be harmed by possible sexual offenses. So what I was able to do and the law that we were able to pass, we were able to pass a restriction where sex offenders could live. That law basically restricts sex offenders from living a thousand feet from schools and 500 feet from parks and playgrounds. We truly felt that this law would basically be taking away the opportunity for sec offenders to be within an eyeshot from kids that are walking to and from school, and to and from playgrounds and parks. So far we found that the law has been affective, however it is tough to enforce because sex offenders tend to be transient so they may be in one property on one day and next property another day, they move from property to property. So following them and tracking them has been a challenge but our police department has done an examplorary job in terms of tying to take care of that.”