Hutto Police Chief Byron Frankland said at a City Council meeting Thursday night that he was surprised to find, upon taking office in early April, that Hutto does not regulate where sex offenders can live.

City Attorney Michael Shaunessy said Frankland remedied this situation as soon as he could.

"The chief and deputy chief caught this as soon as they came in," Shaunessy said. "We've written the ordinance as strictly as we can. We wish we could write it in a more protective manner, but we can't go beyond what the statute allows."

If passed, the new city statute would restrict sex offenders from living closer than 1,000 feet from areas where children tend to gather, including bus stops, parks, sporting events and playgrounds.

Frankland said the new ordinance would have built-in provisions that allow the police department to check that registered sex offenders are living where they say they are.

"We [could] send a detective or patrol officer, while they are on their beat, who can knock on the front door and see who is living there," Frankland said.

Frankland said 21 registered sex offenders currently live within city limits. He said it is a known fact among sex offenders that Hutto is a place where no living ordinance is currently in place.

"It is out there that this is an area ... where we don't have an ordinance," Frankland said.

City Council approved the ordinance on first reading unanimously Thursday night. It still must be approved a second time before going into effect.

Sex offenders who are currently living in areas less than 1,000 feet from the regulated locations would be grandfathered into the policy and would not be required to move immediately. If an offender moved out of the grandfathered in prohibited area, he or she would have to move into an area that would be compliant with the city policy.

Frankland said Hutto will have to be diligent about issues like this as the city continues to grow.

Since Frankland was sworn into office, in early April, there have been four sexual assaults of children in the city of Hutto.

"As the population of the city grows, we want to be able to respond to that," Frankland said.