CALL TO ACTION #3 for HB 1085 Moved to new committees: Infrastructure & Appropriations Subcommittee and Infrastructure Strategies Committee
This Call To Action has been superseded. Comments are now disabled.
CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW CTA
Major Concerns About This Bill:
- The bill states that all driver’s licenses and identification cards for people on the registry “shall have printed in the color red all information otherwise required to be printed on the front of the license or identification card.” HB 1085, lines 805-821
- This bill was passed by a vote of 16 to 2 in the Transportation & Modals Subcommittee on 3.15.2023 as a result of a good deal of misinformation. The sponsor, Rep. Patt Maney, did not seem to fully understand what the correct wording was in the bill relating to the red lettering, nor the decision that came out of the Alabama case.
- No committee member or analyst seemed to be aware of the court decisions in Alabama and Louisiana.
- This bill will be moving on to the Infrastructure & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee and the Infrastructure Strategies Committee, which are both in the House of Representatives.
PLEASE Do the Following:
- Call all members of the Infrastructure & Appropriations Subcommittee and the Infrastructure Strategies Committee
- Whether you talk to a person or voicemail, you must give your name and contact information (phone numbers work). Remember that all voicemails are checked, so you can call after hours.
- State that you OPPOSE the part of the bill that would require the red lettering on driver’s licenses for people on the registry.
- Mention that you are a constituent if you happen to live in the representative’s district.
- Give two brief reasons why you oppose the red lettering on the licenses.
- Ask family members and friends to also call to oppose the red lettering.
Talking Points:
- The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Louisiana’s appeal of a decision against its 2006 law requiring that people on the sex offense registry have their driver’s license or identification card marked with “SEX OFFENDER” in orange letters. The Louisiana Supreme Court said the marking was compelled speech and could not be justified by the state’s interest in protecting public safety.
- In 2019, a federal judge struck down Alabama’s sex offense registration law that required registrants to carry a driver’s license or official ID with “CRIMINAL SEX OFFENDER” emblazoned in red.
- If this bill is passed as is, will Florida also be facing a costly lawsuit?
- There are currently 52 registry requirements for people on the sex offense registry. Every Florida legislator should have received a copy of the timeline of these registry requirements that started off with 3 in 1997 and have grown to 52 by 2020. Failure to fulfill any of these requirements could lead up to 5 years of imprisonment, even for the thousands of Florida registrants who are now law-abiding citizens.
- While there is no research showing a need for the red lettering on licenses, there is an abundance of research showing that the sexual recidivism rate for people with a past sex offense is lower than that for all other crimes, with the exception of murder.
- Research has shown that at least 90% of FUTURE sex crimes will be committed by people NOT on the registry.
- The first-of-its-kind meta-analysis study of 25 years of findings of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification (SORN) evaluations and their effects on recidivism was published in 2021. Eighteen research articles including 474,640 formerly incarcerated individuals were used. (Journal of Experimental Criminology,“The effectiveness of Sex Offender Registration and Notification: A meta-analysis of 25 years of findings”, Kristen M. Zgoba and Meghan M. Mitchell, September 2021)
- Some of the findings of the above-mentioned study: (1) The sex offense registries have had no effect on sexual and non-sexual crime commission over their periods of existence, thereby failing to deliver on the intention of increasing public safety; (2) Public safety could likely be maximized by focusing limited resources on the highest-risk individuals, rather than utilizing a one-size-fits-all law; and (3) It is time that we work as an empirically informed community, unhindered by emotion, to find a solution to reining the “horse back into the barn”, i.e., reining in the numerous sex offense registry statutes.
Even though the bill passed through the Transportation and Modals Subcommittee, comments were made by different representatives showing that some of the representatives did take note of the high number of calls their office received opposing the red lettering. YOUR CALL DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!
Phone Numbers for the Infrastructure & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee:
- Robert Andrade (Chair – R): (850) 717-5002
- Linda Chaney (Vice Chair – R): (850) 717-5061
- David Silvers (Democratic Ranking Member – D): (850) 717-5089
- Bruce Antone (D): (850) 717-5041
- Kimberly Berfield (R): (850) 717-5058
- Robert Brackett (R): (850) 717-5034
- Dan Daley (D): (850) 717-5096
- Tiffany Esposito (R): (850) 717-5077
- Mike Giallombardo (R): (850) 717-5079
- Jennifer Harris (D): (850) 717-5044
- Chip LaMarca (R): (850) 717-5100
- Vicki Lopez (R): (850) 717-5113
- Susan Plascencia (R): (850) 717-5037
- Felicia Robinson (D): (850) 717-5104
- Bradford Yeager (R): (850) 717-5056
Phone Numbers for the Infrastructure Strategies Committee:
- Bobby Payne (Chair – R): (850) 717-5020
- Sam Garrison (Vice Chair – R): (850) 717-5011
- David Smith (Republican Committee Whip – R): (850) 717-5038
- Christine Hunschofsky (Democratic Ranking Member – D): (850) 717-5095
- Robert Andrade (R): (850) 717-5002
- Adam Botana (R): (850) 717-5080
- Robert Brackett (R): (850) 717-5034
- James Buchanan (R): (850) 717-5074
- Hillary Cassel (D): (850) 717-5101
- Linda Chaney (R): (850) 717-5061
- Anna Eskamani (D): (850) 717-5042
- Tom Fabricio (R): (850) 717-5110
- Michael Gottlieb (D): (850) 717-5102
- Sam Killebrew (R): (850) 717-5048
- Johanna Lopez (D): (850) 717-5043
- Fiona McFarland (R): (850) 717-5073
- James Mooney, Jr. (R): (850) 717-5120
- Angela Nixon (D): (850) 717-5013
- Susan Plasencia (R): (850) 717-5037
- Felicia Robinson (D): (850) 717-5104
- Jason Shoaf (R): (850) 717-5007
- Cyndi Stevenson (R): (850) 717-5018
- Josie Tomkow (R): (850) 717-5051
- Keith Truenow (R): (850) 717-5026
Every call gets heard and tallied. Every respectful conversation with a staffer is an excellent opportunity to change a mind about our community with someone who has direct contact with a lawmaker. YOUR EFFORTS DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
This Call To Action has been superseded. Comments are now disabled.
CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW CTA
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I have called every representative listed above! Who else is with me?
Done!
Thank you for the calls.
I just called and left a message with everyone on both lists. Emailing is a lot easier! I don’t have high hopes that any of them will listen or that anything will change.
I don’t like it but in reality I probably don’t show my license but 2 or 3 times a year. Probably most of those people, like doctors office, wouldn’t know why it’s in red.
If it does pass I intend to renew my license just before the stature goes into effect. I don’t think they will make everyone renew their license after it becomes effective. It’s usually the next time it’s renewed. I think the renewal period is 6 or 8 years.
Thank you for the calls.
Since there were only 2 representatives in the meeting that claim their office had “many’ calls on the item, I would like to know how we can get an exact number of oppositions that actually had to this item in total, not just from the two representatives in attendance at the meeting. Shouldn’t that count for something? Just thinking outloud..
I can assure you that all the other representatives’ offices received plenty of calls. They just did not want to admit it.
Good Day
Wanted to share my experience in calling the 39 representatives on the list for HB 1085.
All persons taking the calls were respectful.
Several were leave a message.
I found that most that I spoke to were unaware of the similar law in Alabama that was struck down in 2019.
Be kind keep it “Kiss”
Thanks again FAC for keeping us informed so we can be proactive.
Have a great day!
Thank you, SAILTIME.
Just called all numbers on 2 new committee members lists. Called all numbers on first committee members list a couple days ago. Spoke with someone at 3 numbers and left message at all other numbers.
Thank you for the calls.
If we all were to band together nationwide, friends, family and registered people and just say enough is enough. No. We aren’t doing it anymore, whats the outcome? I am thinking along the lines of civil rights movement
I’m willing to join for far too long we have been pushed into a corner with little to no representation. Slowly our rights are being eroded away to the point that we have none. We must fight for our very existence in this country we are citizens too and deserve our right to live without harrassment, shame, banishment or any other form of victimization. This is a modern day version of Germany in the 1930s so what’s next.