Call to Action for SB 1190 and HB 1131: Online Sting Operations Grant Program

What you need to know about SB 1190 and HB 1131:

• The sponsors of both identical bills say these bills would create an Online Sting Operations Grant Program within FDLE to support local law enforcement agencies in creating sting operations to protect children.
• Many of these sting operations try to entrap individuals in ADULT ONLY websites.
• There is no money in these bills earmarked for education, prevention, and solving crimes involving REAL victims.
• The sponsor of HB 1131 is Representative John Paul Temple, District 52 (Sumter and part of Hernando Counties).
• The sponsor of SB 1190 is Senator Blaise Ingoglia, District 11 (Citrus, Hernando, Sumter, and part of Pasco Counties).
• Both bills have passed through all their respective committees and are awaiting floor votes.

Please do the following:

• Please email or call as many legislators as you can, using some of the suggested Talking Points or your own concerns/stories.  Work on the 40 senators first and then as many of the representative as you have time.
• You will need to give your name.
• If you are a constituent for any of the legislators you are contacting, make sure you mention that you are.  You can click on these links to find your senator and representative.
• Let the legislators and aides know why you oppose the bills.  TELL YOUR STORY.
• If you call in the evening or on a weekend, voicemail will pick up.  Leave a message.  Aides say that voicemails are counted.
• Always be cordial in your communications with the legislators as they are more likely to listen to us.

Talking points:

(Please write as much as you can in your own words.)

• Some of the grant money should be earmarked for education, prevention, and solving crimes involving REAL victims.
• According to the National Institute of Justice, an official website of the U.S. Department of Justice, prison sentences (particularly long sentences) are unlikely to deter future crime.  Prisons may have the opposite effect.  Research shows that the chance of being caught (and knowledge of consequences) is a vastly more effective deterrent than draconian punishment.  Five Things About Deterrence NIJ  Allocate some of the grant money to educate high school students about the consequences of being caught up in one of these sex stings and to educate parents on what they should be doing to protect their children from being a victim of a sex crime.
• Why isn’t the state spending money on investigating rape cases and getting through rape kit backlogs – cases with REAL victims—instead of spending money on creating criminals with NO victims?  These sting operations are “low hanging fruit” that keep the arrests numbers up and federal grant money coming in.  Allocate some of the grant money to solving crimes that involve REAL victims.
• These stings do NOT release one victim or help one child.  There is NOT a REAL victim.  Allocate some of the grant money to solving crimes that involve REAL victims.
• These stings are money makers for law enforcement as they receive federal government dollars for these stings.  Solving real-life sex crimes against children requires more manhours at a lower rate of return.  Allocate some of the grant money to preventing more victims.  Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network  What should we do instead?  Sex Offender Registries:  Are they keeping our children safe?
• These stings usually occur at adult-only websites where law enforcement tries to bait unsuspecting individuals to change from contacting an adult to contacting a minor.  Often these individuals have no desire to hook up with a minor, but law enforcement knows all the right things to say to “pull them in.”  Sometimes it takes days, weeks, and even months to get people to change from seeking an adult to seeking a minor.  These stings are often what many consider unconstitutional entrapments.   Allocate money for prevention rather than entrapment.
• According to Steven Yoder, a journalist with The Appeal, in “Fake Victims Lead to Real Arrests in Online Child Sex Stings,” law enforcement receives “funding based in part on how many arrests and convictions they get.  This may create an incentive to pursue fictitious-victim sting operations, which are often cheaper and less time-intensive than investigations of crimes with real victims…the federal government hasn’t looked into whether the money spent on these task forces is actually keeping kids from being victimized.”
• In the New York Times article “Convicted of Sex Crimes, but with No Victims,” by Michael Winerip, “The emails and texts offering sex are written by undercover officers.  The ‘girls’ in the photos are not 13.  They are police officers, typically the youngest women on the force.”  If you search in this article, you will find the photo of the young female officer that was used, showing her hairline forehead wrinkles, which no 13-year-old girl would have.
• A 2014 investigative news article by 10 Tampa Bay WTSP showed the fallacies behind these sex stings or entrapments: “How law enforcement turns law-abiding men into sexual predators”, by Noah Pransky
• So many of these stings are carried out at ADULT ONLY websites.  Why is law enforcement trying to lure adults who are looking for other consenting adults?
• There is no research showing these stings are making society safer.
• Law enforcement should be prohibited from using online dating websites designated for consenting adults only.
• Law enforcement should be prohibited from using online instant messaging chatrooms for consenting adults.
• Law enforcement should only be allowed to use profiles of the age of 17 years old and younger on online social media/social networking websites.
• Avoiding deception and “bait and switch” and non-random targets should be a part of these grant programs.

Grouped emails for Florida Senators:

albritton.ben.web@flsenate.gov,avila.bryan.web@flsenate.gov,baxley.dennis.web@flsenate.gov,berman.lori.web@flsenate.gov,book.lauren.web@flsenate.gov,boyd.jim.web@flsenate.gov,bradley.jennifer.web@flsenate.gov,brodeur.jason.web@flsenate.gov,broxson.doug.web@flsenate.gov,burgess.danny.web@flsenate.gov

burton.colleen.web@flsenate.gov,calatayud.alexis.web@flsenate.gov,collins.jay.web@flsenate.gov,davis.tracie.web@flsenate.gov,diceglie.nick.web@flsenate.gov,garcia.ileana.web@flsenate.gov,grall.erin.web@flsenate.gov,gruters.joe.web@flsenate.gov,harrell.gayle.web@flsenate.gov,hooper.ed.web@flsenate.gov

hutson.travis.web@flsenate.gov,ingoglia.blaise.web@flsenate.gov,jones.shevrin.web@flsenate.gov,martin.jonathan.web@flsenate.gov,mayfield.debbie.web@flsenate.gov,osgood.rosalind.web@flsenate.gov,passidomo.kathleen.web@flsenate.gov,perry.keith.web@flsenate.gov,pizzo.jason.web@flsenate.gov,polsky.tina.web@flsenate.gov

powell.bobby.web@flsenate.gov,rodriguez.anamaria.web@flsenate.gov,rouson.darryl.web@flsenate.gov,simon.corey.web@flsenate.gov,stewart.linda.web@flsenate.gov,thompson.geraldine.web@flsenate.gov,torres.victor.web@flsenate.gov,trumbull.jay.web@flsenate.gov,wright.tom.web@flsenate.gov,yarborough.clay.web@flsenate.gov

Emails and Phone Numbers for Florida Senators:

Contact information for the House of Representatives can be found in the most recent post for the Call to Action for SB 1230 and HB 1235 at floridaactioncommittee.org.