FAC Submits Public Records Requests to FDLE and FDE
The Florida Action Committee has submitted Public Records Requests, pursuant to Ch. 119 Sec. 1 of the Florida Statutes and the Florida Constitution to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Department of Educations.
We submitted these requests to find out the number of registered sexual offenders or sexual predators who have been arrested, charged with or convicted of a sexual offense which occurred on a school or day care property during 2016, including the county in which the sexual crime took place. (This request is for a list of only those who were already registered, not who committed a sexual offense on a school property and subsequently became registered.) and the number of County School Employees of any Florida County, who have been arrested, charged with or convicted of a sexual offense against a student of a School in any Florida County during 2016, including the County in which the sexual crime took place.
The purpose of this request is to see just how many individuals on the registry are entering school grounds to facilitate sex crimes vs. how many school employees are committing sex crimes against students.
This is important to determine whether policies and practices such as the one instituted in Marion County (to erect signs warning registrants to stay off the property) are addressing a legitimate problem. This is also important to determine whether the danger of sexual victimization on school campuses is coming from registrants or school employees themselves.
If Marion County is going to spend seven thousand dollars on signs, plus exponentially more on law enforcement officers visiting each registrant, in person, to notify them of the new policy, there should be a rational relationship to a problem this policy is trying to remedy.
This is a ridiculous waste of time on the part of FAC, I’m sorry. I’m not sure what you all are thinking. The stats and the article is about student on student incidents, not adults coming into schools. You are trying to make an issue out of something where this is no issue and have misunderstood the original article entirely.
It was more likely a response to this:
Signs will warn sex offenders to stay off school grounds
by Florida Action Committee | Apr 26, 2017
https://floridaactioncommittee.org/signs-will-warn-sex-offenders-stay-off-school-grounds/
Probably not a response to the article you seem to have in mind. But, I could also be wrong. And also probably still a waste of time since FDLE will discard it as quickly as possible without helping prove this is a wasteful action of pure misdirection. The effort would have clearly been better spent on just about anything else. We all know it doesn’t take a warning sign to convict a sex offender for being on school grounds. It’s like putting up a sign at all banks that reads “No robbery allowed pursuant to FS blah blah blah”. Looks fancy, might make people think “gee, all those law enforcement tax dollars are justified”, but definitely not going to be the thing that stops the bank robber from showing up and doing their thing.
rpsabq and WesternDichotomy – I think it is a ridiculous waste of MY time to read your judgements of FAC.
rpsabq – I am not sure what article you are speaking of but this request was made in response to the signs being posted at school entrances. Either way if the article was about adults or students this would still apply. The point FAC is making is that RSOs are not the people hurting children on school grounds. Personally I am offended that you would question their methods….what exactly is your agenda? FAC has helped many RSOs across Florida in any way they could. Also, unless you are an active volunteer for them it is none of your business how they use their resources.
WesternDichotomy – Although you presented a level-headed response about the true meaning of FACs request you also criticized FACs efforts as being a waste of time. Your assertions for the outcome may be correct but getting the knowledge and truth out every time it is possible is NEVER a waste. Knowledge and education is power – Always.
ALso, it is well to mention I am NOT an official representative of FAC.
Thank you, Karen.
With respect to the critics’ comments. Whether our results are productive or fruitless, FAC is trying everything we can (within our limited budget and with our limited volunteers) to help these individuals.
Whether they are on board with us or haters, ALL registrants in FL are beneficiaries of the legislation we have stopped, the injunction we obtained in our Internet Identifier suit, the 11th Circuit decision on SORRs and the information and resources we share by virtue of them reading these posts.
Their right to criticize is protected by the same First Amendment that we argue for in our Federal lawsuit, so let them say what what they want and let us tell them, in response, that if they don’t like what we do they can go kick rocks!
Members who disagree or who have questions should be welcomed, not chastised. Just because someone is offering feedback which counters the given narrative, does NOT mean that person is against you. Maybe having someone who understands constructive criticism and is open to dialogue would be a better choice in deciding who gets to be in charge of the articles and commentary on the FAC website.
Um, excuse me I am a paying member. Am VERY active in the movement and have spoken to you all and participated in phone calls several times. I have offered to help on several occasions and have been in dialogue with folks as how I can best serve since do not live in Florida. Maybe I am misunderstanding this forum, but I do have the right to suggest, criticize, offer advice and share my experiences and opinions as I see fit as long as it is done in a professional, polite manner. I can withdraw my support at ANY time. If you don’t like what i have to say, that is fine but don’t accost me for saying it by signaling me out. This shouldn’t me a one way conversation that we have going on here. And if you are not an official representative of FAC, then who are you and who do you represent? Because you sure do seem to have a lot of power here. Thank you.
You are absolutely entitled to your opinion and you have every right to share it. Your comments are open to other members and what you chose to say appears in our forum and therefore you decide and are in charge of what commentary (of yours) gets posted to this forum.
As an organization with a common mission, we foster a supportive environment and encourage all efforts to facilitate change. If you believe we are wasting our time on anything, we will take in your opinion, consider it constructive criticism and look forward to proving the effort productive. If not, the Public Information Requests are prepared by a volunteer and all costs, including postage for certified mail, was covered by a volunteer, not taken from funds allocated to litigation or membership. So nothing is lost by the effort.
got it. I thought “Karen” was the author of the article/opinion. It’s clear now. Yes we are all here commenting as such…. thank you.
By saying it was a waste of time, I wasn’t criticizing FAC. Possibly worded wrong.
In fact, my opinion is that it was a great gesture and sends a signal. It can also possibly be used in the future to show a trend of non-compliance with Sunshine law and willful ignorance of the real threat to Floridians despite FAC’s attempt to bring it to their attention (repeatedly).
The waste of time was in reference specifically to the possibility of actually obtaining the information from the requested source. It is a cynical view, but it’s also the most realistic. If you had to bet money on it, my assumption is you’d bet on them not helping the RSO community, even if it also meant helping kids, families, and Florida citizens. It’s a spiteful stance that they justify in their minds, somehow. This, of course, is mostly conjecture and purely opinion based on previous behavior the Florida LE community has shown.
Also, haters are gonna hate and cynics are going to be cynical. It’s not always ideal, but it’s part of the dialogue. If it’s criticism that’s based soundly on realistic concerns, then it should be permitted into the conversation. As far as I’ve seen, FAC goes above and beyond to permit many viewpoints into the discussion, even those of our opponents. Censorship should be avoided to great extent, and I seen that FAC makes effort to live up to that. RSOs suffer greatly from censorship on the other end, so it makes sense that we should oppose it on this end.
Well put.
Rp/Wd/Karen
We may agree or disagree with someones comments or statments but it’s their constitutional right to express them and they are protected. Isn’t that what this is all about protection of all constitutional rights for everyone even registrants. So let’s keep our eyes on the big picture we need all the help we can get
The problem I see is getting the news outlets to report it first and then getting them to report it accurately. In my city sex offender stories are a cash cow for one local news station in particular especially during sweeps with titles like We found a sex offender delivering pizza how dare he have job film at 10. Then of course they do whatever they can do teardown whatever this guy has tried rebuild as far as a life goes. Some journalist are responsible but finding them in a large market may be a challenge
How dare you ask for that!!
And it’s also no stretch to say that using mathematics is a fundamental human right – part of what actually makes us human. No law can take away our math.
A friend suggested doing something similar to this.
Each month, call law enforcement offices in the state, ask them how many registered sex offenders have been arrested, on what charges, and what the outcome of the case was. Then send the results of this monthly survey as a news release to media outlets in the state. It might dispel some of the hysteria if people heard regular news reports about how few new sex crimes are committed by registered sex offenders.
Great idea! Of course, how easily and quickly the departments could give you that information is another story.
Let’s see if they actually comply…
They will ignore us just like they have with our other requests. It’s up to all of us in Florida to make the changes we need.
Get ready to have to stand up for yourselves. YES, that means that you will have reveal yourselves as a “Sex Offender”, but it’s the only way we can make these people stop.
We need to have a group of us talk with the politician’s in Talahassee. If they see us, and have to answer our questions, it will be harder for them to pass a law against us.
Remember: Ron Book says “they run away when the light is shined on them”. It will ALWAYS be this bad until we unite and stand up for ourselves.
YES, I volunteer to go to Tallahassee and speak with the lawmakers, but don’t ever ask me not to be emotional. They have caused my family a lot of problems!!
I hope there will be others who will volunteer to stand up against the politician like me.
I’m with you Brother. I’ll go speak to them with you. I got nothing left to loose, they already took it. Now I want to take it back. I did my time, complied with all their rules and regulations and still they want more. And yes it is time to take a stand for what’s right, because the B.S. laws they are passing now is just plain ridiculous.