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:
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Emails and Phone Numbers for Florida Senators:
Senator | Phone | |
1. Ben Albritton | [email protected] | (850) 487-5027 |
2. Bryan Avila | [email protected] | (850) 487-5039 |
3. Dennis Baxley | [email protected] | (850) 487-5013 |
4. Lori Berman | [email protected] | (850) 487-5026 |
5. Lauren Book | [email protected] | (850) 487-5035 |
6. Jim Boyd | [email protected] | (850) 487-5020 |
7. Jennifer Bradley | [email protected] | (850) 487-5006 |
8. Jason Brodeur | [email protected] | (850) 487-5010 |
9. Doug Broxson | [email protected] | (850) 487-5001 |
10. Danny Burgess | [email protected] | (850) 487-5023 |
11. Colleen Burton | [email protected] | (850) 487-5012 |
12. Alexis Calatayud | [email protected] | (850) 487-5038 |
13. Jay Collins | [email protected] | (850) 487-5014 |
14. Tracie Davis | [email protected] | (850) 487-5005 |
15. Nick DiCeglie | [email protected] | (850) 487-5018 |
16. Ileana Garcia | [email protected] | (850) 487-5036 |
17. Erin Grall | [email protected] | (850) 487-5029 |
18. Joe Gruters | [email protected] | (850) 487-5022 |
19. Gayle Harrell | [email protected] | (850) 487-5031 |
20. Ed Hooper | [email protected] | (850) 487-5021 |
21. Travis Hutson | [email protected] | (850) 487-5007 |
22. Blaise Ingoglia | [email protected] | (850) 487-5011 |
23. Shevrin Jones | [email protected] | (850) 487-5034 |
24. Jonathan Martin | [email protected] | (850) 487-5033 |
25. Debbie Mayfield | [email protected] | (850) 487-5019 |
26. Rosalind Osgood | [email protected] | (850) 487-5032 |
27. Kathleen Passidomo | [email protected] | (850) 487-5028 |
28. Keith Perry | [email protected] | (850) 487-5009 |
29. Jason Pizzo | [email protected] | (850) 487-5037 |
30. Tina Scott Polsky | [email protected] | (850) 487-5030 |
31. Bobby Powell | [email protected] | (850) 487-5024 |
32. Ana Maria Rodriguez | [email protected] | (850) 487-5040 |
33. Darryl Rouson | [email protected] | (850) 487-5016 |
34. Corey Simon | [email protected] | (850) 487-5003 |
35. Linda Stewart | [email protected] | (850) 487-5017 |
36. Geraldine Thompson | [email protected] | (850) 487-5015 |
37. Victor Torres | [email protected] | (850) 487-5025 |
38. Jay Trumbull | [email protected] | (850) 487-5002 |
39. Tom Wright | [email protected] | (850) 487-5008 |
40. Clay Yarborough | [email protected] | (850) 487-5004 |
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.
The sheriff’s office said ages of those arrested ranged from 73 years old to 16 years old.
They keep saying they are saving children from sex (human) trafficking so what is a 16-year-old doing here? These stings are the biggest racketeering scam that Florida is deeply involved in.
Just a glimpse of what they will do with an increase budget https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2024/03/04/operation-march-sadness-polk-sheriff-to-discuss-undercover-human-trafficking-stings/
The use of Taxpayers dollars?????- child sex stings – the bait and switch devious scheme used on adult websites to entrap men. These men end up on Florida’s life sex offender registry.
https://floridianpress.com/2024/01/online-sting-operation-bill-to-catch-pedophiles-passes-florida-house-committee/
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1131/BillText/Filed/PDF
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1131
This has passed YEAS 39 NAYS 0
“The sheriff’s office said ages of those arrested ranged from 73 years old to 16 years old.” “The biggest problem we have in this type of investigation is getting the victims to admit their victims because they’re more afraid of their pimps and the human traffickers than they are the criminal justice system,” Judd said.
So now they have 16 year olds being arrested in these supposedly Human trafficking stings. Really what next? The victims won’t admit their victims. Are these victims real?
Sounds like the bait and switch child sex stings.
It’s about sweeping all of us back into the system. It’s not about anything else.
Florida Action Committee I’m sure was set up to condemn this registry yet many talk about their rights to be on Facebook and these other media’s types of gossip columns . Sounds a bit confusing to me. Are we not here to comment about these sex offender issues and to seek justice or who is giving a false narrative to others to enslave another in this whole registry pretense
Is not biblical justice more important than the injustice and enslavement many in this registry or is the blind leading the blind. Seems like one wants his cake and eat it too and yes we all want respect when respect is due.
Yes many are going to say their is no end to this madness but their will be an end. Protecting and preventing are two different issues or should we all wear seat-belts. I don’t think the first cars ever made had seat-belts in mind. Sure government may profit in many ways but are they actually doing justice. Wow talk about prevention vs perversion.
I know everyone is frustrated in this registry myself included but it all comes down to truth. Wasn’t every one involved deceived in all this registry and this lifetime before and after the fact of one’s probation or their prison release. Sure one could go with house arrest if they even looked at a teenager.
Government wants to take the bull by the horn..”because we can”. Here many talk about taking back America. Who do we take it back too? Do we look for answers in the bible or start with Government abuse or even sound off about the burdens of living on the registry or even talk about one’s free will in this decision making.
This is not about “protecting” children. It’s about profiting from fear, hate and hysteria. These “stings” are just an assembly line for future registry candidates. I guess the registry in Florida is still not bloated enough for lawmakers. There is no end to this madness.