The Registry Can’t Tell You Who Is Safe

There is a particular irony in the arrest of Palm Beach County Clerk of Court Michael Caruso.

Caruso, a former Republican member of the Florida House and a political ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, was arrested Tuesday on five felony charges related to the alleged sexual abuse of a young relative. Caruso has denied the allegations and, as with anyone accused of a crime, is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

But Caruso’s arrest has also brought renewed attention to something he supported while serving in the Florida Legislature: the death penalty for certain child sex offenses.

In 2023, Caruso voted for legislation allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty when an adult is convicted of capital sexual battery against a child under 12. The bill was signed into law by Gov. DeSantis. Now, less than four years later, Caruso himself stands to face the same music he himself composed.

There is an important lesson here that has nothing to do with Caruso or his political party. People who commit sexual abuse don’t always look like the monsters politicians describe when they demand harsher penalties. They can be respected members of the community. They can be elected officials. They can be trusted professionals. They can be family members. They are most commonly people who have never appeared on a sex-offender registry.

And that is precisely why Florida’s obsession with publicly identifying people on the registry deserves scrutiny.

The registry is frequently presented as a “tool” that allows parents to identify the people they need to fear. But the Caruso allegations demonstrate the fundamental limitation of that premise: a registry can tell you where a registered person lives. It cannot tell you who is safe.

FAC believes children deserve to be protected. But protecting children requires evidence-based policies, not the assumption that a government database can divide the world neatly into “dangerous people” and everyone else.

FAC NOTE: The allegations against Michael Caruso are just that — allegations. He is entitled to due process, just as every person accused of a crime is. Florida Action Committee does not post stories like this to celebrate anyone’s arrest or to shame an accused person. We post them because they demonstrate why public policy should be based on evidence rather than stereotypes — and why a person’s political status, profession, family relationship or community reputation cannot reliably tell us who may pose a danger to a child.