Member Submission: Address Verification in Tallahassee
Hello. Just to let fellow people required to register know: my local city police showed up for my verification. I am no longer on Probation. I register through my county sheriff not the city. They asked me questions not asked during the regular registration (Do I have an internet service provider? Who is my closest living relative and what is their phone number? Do I have any minor children or grandchildren? What are their names and ages? How often do they come here? ).
I at first told the officer I wouldn’t answer them without asking my attorney. He said he’d be in his car for a bit if I wanted to contact the lawyer. i luckily got a hold of him and he told me to answer the questions cause he didn’t think they were anything that threatened me. The cop returned and I answered. He then told me that his lieutenant told him that if I didn’t answer they would contact SVU and would arrest me.
It’s so hard to know what to do. I feel confident in following my lawyer’s advice, but I would like to know if the cop is just threatening me without justification. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.
J
I would like this agency to be contacted by your attorney and followed up on in this matter. We as a community need to get to the bottom of this.
It could be that TPD is running checks on registrants within city limits to alleviate numbers on LSCO. There’s one guy at the sheriff’s office making the rounds these days. He’s at least the third one in my 6 years here and I believe we just got a new police chief at TPD. A few visits back a detective came to my house asking a bunch of questions about my registration and his information didn’t line up so I called FDLE. I think they were trying to trip me up, but FDLE said not to worry about it because as long as nothing is changed that wasn’t reported there was nothing to worry about. So now I just tell them whatever is on your sheet is probably right, clarify it with FDLE. TPD can try to arrest you for not answering questions, but I would love to see what the charges would be and it probably just a scare tactic anyway. I’m not obligated to answer questions to the local police department who’s probably just flexing their muscles and making their presence known with no cause. It is a cause of concern the way some of these changes are implemented and I agree a follow-up with the attorney is probably in order. Someone needs to get to the bottom of this and who better than the person affected directly by this? Maybe FAC could make some phone calls?
I don’t know what offense they could have arrested you for. Nothing in F.S. 943.0435 requires you to answer any of those questions (only to respond to an address verification), and you have a Constitutional right to remain silent. I’m curious as to what would have been in the probable cause affidavit supporting the arrest, which the arresting officer must sign under penalty of perjury.
Police have almost complete immunity from civil liability, but one of the few things they can actually be sued for is arresting someone for a non-existent offense and knowingly falsifying a PCA.
In Miami-Dade County, when they verify your address they will not enter your home even if you invite them in (once it was raining hard and I asked them if they wanted to come inside and they said no, they cannot enter). They often don’t even come out of their vehicle or even ask for ID. They just do a quick driveby, I pop my head out the door, at that’s it.
That seems like a weird set of questions. None of the questions are required for registration. Email addresses used yes. Internet Service Provider? Closest living relative? By miles or by state? Seems like stupid questions designed to drum up arrest charges
They not only wanted the closest living relative’s name, but also their phone number. Talk about invasion of privacy! The relative is not on the registry!
Arrest on what offense? This is crazy.
Yeah – that seems downright peculiar to me.
Closest living relative? That doesn’t seem relevant to anything to do with being on probation or having to register unless they thought you were a flight risk. Kids names which may be around – maybe relevant…
Good thing you had a lawyer handy. Overall it could be an intimidation tactic they are using just to let you know they are under their thumb… ¯_(:/)_/¯
Do we or don’t we still have a 5th amendment right to remain silent?
Even if we had done something wrong then I should still have the right to remain silent.
To the poster…are you on probation?
He said “I am no longer on Probation. ” in his original post.
He clearly stated that he is no longer on probation.
The poster wrote: “I am no longer on probation.”