FAC Position Statement on Senate Bill 1932

January 19, 2022

To ALL Senators of the State of Florida                                     SENT VIA EMAIL
and ALL Members of the Florida House
of Representatives


RE:     OPPOSITION TO SB 1932: SEXUAL
        PREDATORS AND SEXUAL OFFENDERS

Dear Legislators:

I am President of the Florida Action Committee (FAC), a 2,500+ member non-profit organization that advocates for public safety and laws based on empirical research. Our focus is on the Florida Sex Offender Registry.

I am writing to express my organization’s strong opposition to the above-referenced Bill, which was introduced earlier this week by Senator Hooper.

While there are many items we find objectionable in this Bill, I will limit the focus of this letter to two items; the first is a change in the definition of the word “day” and the second is a proposal that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement be given the opportunity to oppose removals from the registry.

The first change is so illogical that it will yield absurd results – that is the proposal to define the word “day” to “include[] any part of a calendar day”.

Currently, persons required to register must register their “Permanent Residence,” “Temporary Residence,” and “Transient Residence” within 48 hours. These are places where the individual “abides”, “lodges”, “resides”, “lives”, “remains”, or “is located” for three (3) or more “days”, either consecutively (Permanent Residence) or in the aggregate (Temporary Residence/Transient Residence) during a calendar year.

With the change in definition, a “day” can comprise a period of one hour or even one minute, as these periods of time are “part of a calendar day”. Accordingly, if you “remain” someplace for 10 minutes, one will be considered to have been there “a day”. If they return to that place for any duration four (4) or more times[1] during a calendar year, they would be required to register it, in person at the sheriff’s office. Therefore, the sheriff’s office where an individual “is located” for an hour four times a year to complete registration would be registrable.

Think of the ramifications. If a person “remains” or “is located” at the same barbershop for a haircut, restaurant for a meal, store to buy groceries, neighbor’s home to watch a sports game, 4 days in the aggregate during a year, these places would all be registrable and require a trip to both the sheriff’s office and the DHSMV. Failure to do so results in a third-degree felony.

If the registration office is not open within 48 hours of the fourth visit (for example, as in the case of this past weekend which included MLK Day) and the person cannot register, it will result in a third-degree felony (or the inability of the person to visit the location). It would also add the location as a red dot on the sex offender registry map, even though a registrant might only be present there for one hour every three months.

Under no dictionary definition is a “day” an hour, a minute or “any part of a calendar day”. This Bill’s proposal to define it as such is absurd and unjust.

The second significant change would give the Florida Department of Law Enforcement the opportunity to object to removal petitions filed under F.S. §943.0435(11). Under the current version of the Statute, the State Attorney in the respective circuit is required to be provided notice and an opportunity to oppose the petition. The proposed amendment would add the FDLE as a second party to oppose the position. The FDLE is a state-wide law enforcement agency. They are not prosecutors. Allowing them to intervene is inappropriate.

Additionally, the FDLE receives funding for the registry through a U.S. Department of Justice grant program. The larger the registry, the more funding the department receives. This is a clear conflict of interest, as the FDLE is incentivized to keep people on the registry. According to the recent OPPAGA report, Florida already has more people on its registry who are not in Florida communities than are!

I implore you to oppose SB 1932.

Sincerely,
/s/ Gail Colletta
Gail Colletta, President
Florida Action Committee, Inc.

[1] The Bill provides that the first “day” does not count.