Retired Officer Opposes Sex Offender Designation on New Florida Licenses
Shalimar, Florida’s WEAR ran a story on the newly designed Florida driver’s licenses. One surprising opinion about the new license came from a retired parole officer, who commented on the sex offender designation on licenses for those registered. Here’s what he had to say:
“The new license turns heads in Okaloosa County; including Don Gatchell’s. He’s a retired parole officer with the state of Florida who worries an old, but remodeled feature – a mandatory sexual offender identification on the card – may be too much.
“My honest opinion now that I have been out of it for 10 years, retired, I think we’re overdoing it with the sex offenders. I mean, I know there are some guys out there, sex offenders, that are bad, but not all sex offenders are bad. You got people out there who are on probation for underage sex for example,” Gatchell said. He worries the ID will cause unnecessary prejudice in the lives of those impacted”
Finally a voice of reason from someone in the trenches! Persecution of any group is not only in poor taste and behavior. Persecution leads to regretful consequences.
It is nice to have someone such as this speak out. Now is this the statute on the SO and the words on the predators? Or did they change it?
Yes from what I can tell on the Florida DMV page. Scroll all the way down
https://www.flhsmv.gov/driver-licenses-id-cards/newdl/
It’s good to see that someone who has dealt with RSO’s can see that the law makers have gone way overboard in their actions. If anything, some of these laws encourage those who have a propensity to reoffend to do so as they lose hope of every being able to again live a normal life. There are some RSO’s, as there are in any class of offenders, who are dealing with deep seated mental problems and need extra attention. But to say once a person commits a crime they have established a life pattern is just plain foolishness. After all, we have all sinned in one way or another. I say ‘Bravo Zulu’ to the officer who has recognized this fact and may his opinion carry some weight in the fight for reason and justice.
i agree you might have made one mistake and you branded for life as and then again you can be branded as so with no proof but the word of mouth and to have to register for life is uncalled for when a person who is convicted for let’s say second degree murder only get’s 25 years or to make one mistake and be branded a felon florida has taken this whole thing to far register twice a year and then have to pay them for you going to do what your suppose to do you have to pay $25.00 each time you register paying for the paper then you have to wait for them to come to your home so they can come to your home and check on you ad the so registery has to go
Does this mean that the statute number is no longer used for those designated a just sex offenders.
No, it does not. Statute number is still used.
Thank you for the clarification. Predators get the stamp and SO’s get the FS#. Thanks again FAC.
That’s great to hear. If only more probation officers felt that way and were able to hear his comments.
While I do appreciate Mr. Gatchell’s support on this issue, I find this idea of a new license requirement absolutely ridiculous. If this turns out to be like Alabama’s D.L. in big red letter’s, that say’s “SEX OFFENDER”, I will not comply. I’m really tired of Florida’s government piling on more B.S. on us. I’m just so tired of being under Florida’s ” microscope ” all the time, and being on the bottom of their sewage. garbage dump. I’m 60 yrs old, a veteran, convicted in 1991 via plea bargain, tried so hard to live a decent life, been a good person in general, all of this just to be shit on by the state of Florida? I’m just so tired of it all. Don’t worry, I’m not depressed, I’m just EXTREMELY pissed.
I wonder what he thinks of the new passport law from IML? Last week when I went to do my semi annual check in the SO hadnt even heard of it.
Why or how was the simple statute number on the back of the license turn into the blazing SEX OFFENDER on the front? This is another form of public humiliation after the punishment is served.
Does a released convicted murder felon or a dangerous DUI felon have a designation on their ID ?
It does not. The statute number will remain. It is not changing.
I think the only change will be that it is printed in Blue instead of Black? Really, other than the color and style it is not changing then?
It’s no worse than Seminole County making you carry around a f***ing separate ID card with SEX OFFENDER all over it.
It’s a yellow star event all over again but no one gives two rat’s asses.
Really getting to be too much to bear.
In Florida you can be designated a predator even when the state the violations happened did not declare the acts predatory. Florida has barely moved beyond the ‘burning witches at the stake’ phase of history. I am a so-called ‘predator’ in Florida but not in Virginia and the ‘victim’…my daughter…and I get along just fine. Legislators in Florida are the problem.
Absolutely Capt.!
Anyone notice the developmentally disabled designator as well? Its getting creepier… Isnt a drivers licence just that: a licence to drive? Its like our social security numbers: they were just supposed to be bank account numbers for your soc sec accts but have gotten to be more than they should… does an rso drive any different? Id say safer due to the fact we dont ever want to show these cards!
FM – I agree with you 100%. Little by little Americans have given over our freedoms and rights to privacy. They are non-existent now. It IS very creepy. And they sugar coat it all with “it is for our safety” or it benefits us somehow and we all bought it hook, line, and sinker.
A great patriot, Patrick Henry said, ” The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be secure, when the transactions of their rulers, may be concealed from them. ”
in other words, Whatever power’s you give to politicians and bureaucrats to use against people, will eventually be used by future politicians and bureaucrats, against you.
I know you can’t and won’t answer legal questions, but I am curious for those who are capable. Wouldn’t putting this “offender” endorsement on a driver’s license fall under violation of our free speech? More specifically what is classified as “forced speech”? I know this same defense was used somewhere at some point when a county started forcing offenders to place “offender lives here” signs in their lawn, and it was shot down as a violation of forced speech laws.
I have been coming here reading these and all posts for a long while now.
I too am a RSO, do you really think that they(government) really care about what we think, or go through? Hell no!
It is more profitable to keep us on the registry, than to get rid of it!
This country (that I served as a US Marine) is no longer the same democrocy that it was. It is now a buracrocy, for the government by the government.
So what really make one person, or group of persons believe that it (government) cares at all about us?
Until major change, and I mean MAJOR, like another civil war, come about, we will be as we are…
Maybe…. if all the RSO’s got together all 800,000 or so… went to Washington DC …. marched up to the whitehouse and stuck up our middle finger and said…”we ain’t gonna take it any more, to hell with your rules! Maybe… maybe
But it it’ll never happen!
“Maybe in the year 2424, if man is still alive”. Quote from an old song
What would happen? They would try to arrest all 800,000 of us for failing to register or some “travel violation” 😉
Of course the good news is since we would be protesting in DC instead of Miami, we probably wouldnt have to sleep in our cars on the side of I-75 in the Everglades because no motel met the 2500 foot rule. 😀
I agree with him about this. there are many of us who have no desire to ever offend and yet we are being punished for the rest of our lives.
Yes, we may have no intention of ever offending again, but if the ‘system’ admits it, many jobs of those who are ‘protecting’ society will be lost so they must keep the hype in high gear.