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GREENSBORO — The city will soon be the latest North Carolina municipality to consider banning registered sex offenders from recreation facilities.

Councilman Mike Barber has drafted an ordinance that would keep registered offenders out of city park properties –— a law similar to one in the town of Woodfin that was upheld this summer by the state Supreme Court.

Barber said the proposed ordinance would make the community safer.

“It gives law enforcement another tool to deal with people they might find at our parks and recreation facilities that don’t seem to have a reason to be there,” Barber said.

Opponents argue that ordinances like this could give people a false sense of security and unnecessarily include offenders who are not a danger to children or the public.

The council could review the proposal in September.

Greensboro has more than 300 registered sex offenders, according to the Guilford County sheriff’s Web site.

The Greensboro Parks & Recreation Department oversees dozens of neighborhood and regional parks, historic sites and recreation centers for youth and seniors.

Barber’s proposed ordinance would ban sex offenders from all those properties, except when a site is used for a public meeting or as a polling location.

People who violate the ordinance could be fined $500 or spend up to 30 days in jail.

Barber said high rates of recidivism among child predators make ordinances such as this one necessary.

“I want our community to be safe,” Barber said.

The Greensboro Police Department receives occasional reports of suspicious people at parks during children’s sporting events, said Cpl. C.E. Williams, a detective who works child victim cases.

“It’s something we need to be aware of to protect the children in that jurisdiction,” Williams said.

A state Supreme Court decision in June opened the door for other communities to ensure potential predators stay out of parks.

In 2005, Woodfin, north of Asheville, passed an ordinance prohibiting sex offenders from parks after two sexual assaults happened in or near town recreation facilities.

The Woodfin law was challenged by resident David Standley, who spent time in jail for attempted sexual battery and aggravated sexual assault on a woman in Florida.

Standley suffered a stroke in 1998, which made him unable to travel without assistance, according to court records. Now a North Carolina resident,

Standley frequented a Woodfin park with his mother before the ordinance was passed.

Katy Parker, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina who represented Standley, said ordinances like Woodfin’s can be broad and have been passed in communities where there have been no assaults in parks.

“I don’t think there is anybody in North Carolina who would dispute that protecting our children is probably the most important government interest we have,” Parker said.

“One of our policy concerns is that (the ordinances) tend to draw in a lot of people who are actually not a danger to children.”

Convicted offenders could be on the registry for a crime like statutory rape, Parker said. The ordinances would be fairer if they gave a sex offender an opportunity to appeal for a personal exemption, she argued.

The Greensboro City Council might address those issues of fairness and scope when they debate Barber’s proposal.

Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small said the council should look at the implications and potential unintended consequences of the proposed ordinance.

“Everybody who is labeled a sex offender is not the habitual pedophile who is going to grab a kid off a swing,” she said.

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com