On April 10th, The Florida House of Representatives amended House Bill 987: Public Lodging Establishments, to require Persons required to register as sex offenders report to the Sheriff’s office where they will be staying, 48 hours before an intended stay at a Public Lodging Establishment, regardless of how long they will stay at the location!
In addition, operators of a Public Lodging Establishment who have a Person required to register as a sex offender staying at or within 1000 feet of their establishment, must notify all guests staying there.
Not only will this be impossible to comply with (you will need to report to the local Sheriff 48 hours before even arriving!), but burdens the travel rights of persons who have served their time and without any individualized assessment of their risk to the community.
It is IMPORTANT that you contact your legislator to tell them to OPPOSE this bill! NOW!
A copy of the Amendment can be found here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/987/Amendment/348655/PDF
A copy of the Bill can be found here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/987/BillText/c2/PDF
You can find House Committees and Representatives serving here: https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Committees/committees.aspx
You can find all Representatives here: Florida House of Representatives Complete List
You can find all Senators here: Florida Senate Complete List
You can find your specific State and US Representatives here: https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
I would say we dodged a bullet on this one, but due to it’s magnitude, I’d say we dodged a WMD!
Sadly, there’s no guarantee it won’t be re-introduced next year.
Please accept my sincere thanks to FAC for giving us a heads up on this insane bill. I think that if lawmakers hadn’t received all the negative feedback, it would have passed.
Again, thank you FAC.
Did I read it right!!!
If so.
Just read on FL government site. That HB987 has been indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration.
Great news@ Thanks FAC for the call to action.
That looks to be the case. This should be a lesson to all of us.
Does look that way. Cool.
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/00987
Maybe I’m mistaken,but isn’t this bill dead. Or has it been resurrected?
It is pending. Last year’s bill died. It was reintroduced.
What I don’t understand about this is why is the state of Florida still punishing Ex offenders even if they have been walking a straight line and trying to be productive law abiding citizens. This is a terrible way to live.
we have politicians that are bought and paid for. We have a senator who uses science when convenient for her. No science when making a bill. An agenda to continue to punish people and promote oneself, regardless of how much money wasted. Money Money Money
Did we not see this coming? I knew if IML stood as it has states would soon follow suit in pre-travel notification to trigger warnings to locals. IML simply reinforced what AWA already had in place as the AG added the pre-travel notification. No act of Congress or Senate, just the AG on his own added the requirement. Should this bill stand, other states will follow and wala we are all on probation wearing a civil mask. Then what? pre-notification before entering another county? city? Or before you leave your residence? IML will be the foundation that started at the top and worked its way down. I am suffocating in a shrinking room.
Additional thought upon reading 775.21
If the registration is not carries out as ordered in that statute, one is subject to the notification that under strict liability the person will be placed on home arrest with ankle bracelet or prison .
Oh that ought to entice registrants to come and vacation in FL. !!
Reading the ‘current version’ of the bill as on the internet it only mentions statute 775.21 for the registration.
Reviewing 775.21 it seems to only speak to Predators. Am I missing something? Because in addition the bill encompasses both predators and offenders as if covered by the same statute sub section.
What a sloppily written bill/amendment. 48 hours BEFORE, oh yeah!!
I have mentioned this before on a forum concerning the out of state requirements in FL. I think NARSOL, WAR and any other sex offender advocacy group that could, should hold a joint conference in FL. Let’s hold it at a small town near a large city just over the county line.
Maybe only 500-1000 people show up. What hotels could turn down that kind of business? But the registrations would crush local law enforcement. Not to mention it would bloat the registry in that area. It would cause panic in the local populace for 48 hrs. Can you imagine the impact to the sheriff department there. How many deputies would it take to “Warn” the populace? Then the impact to tourism, real estate value, or other economic impacts.
Then the lasting effects regarding statistics on sex offenders. 18% of “xyz” county are registered sex offenders. And of course this would be a permanent effect since no one is removed from the registry.
Do you think that may get someone’s attention? Then do it again next year..
once you go on FL’s registry you never come off. I seriously don’t recommend it.
Sounds like a way to cripple the registrants financially who live in Florida so they can’t sue and win cases anymore. Also, a way to get more out of state offenders on their offender list so they can up their numbers. You contact the Sheriffs office tell them your coming and you will be on Florida’s list until you die, even if you get off the offender list where you live. It’s a fact and thousands have visited and are now stuck on Florida’s registry.
I want this law to pass.
Before you call me a nitwit, let me explain:
This is SOOOOOO OUTRAGEOUS that even the worst die-hard SO haters will have to admit that their treatment of us is ridiculous.
I want it to pass! It’ll be great advertising for our plight. It’ll gain a HUGE amount of sympathy for our cause! (like a publicity stunt)
For those of us whose employment depends on our ability to travel, the years it would take to litigate this thing to resolution would cause a lot of us to lose employment.
I hope it doesn’t pass.
When will we know if it passes?
There are several more weeks in the legislative session. Sometime before then.
Thank you for the info I appreciate it and I also appreciate everything you all do (FAC)
I have no intent to comply even if it does pass. There comes a time when we have to decide that enough is enough. The ‘sexoffendernistas’ we be chasing their tails anyway trying to keep up with it.
FAC i agree. It will take them 3 to 6 months to prosecute someone on This bill, but 2 to 3 years to overturn it. I hope that the ACLU is standing by with an injunction in case it passes they attempt a stay until it can be heard in court. If it passes that will be our only hope.
I hope this passes too. Sorry for the people who have to travel, but look at it this way….
You go to a Hilton, say on Ft Laud beach, 5-6-700 rooms. You check in and now staff have to form a “vigilante ‘Hogans Heroes squad'”. Running from room to room to “notify” the others of your presence. Half of the 5-6-700 are NOW calling down to the front desk and “CHECKING OUT”…..?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hows that going to play out??? (and dont the hotels have to notify neighboring hotels/restaurants???
IF (and its a BIG IF) this passes, it will be overturned before it gets printed.
REMEMBER— TOURISM IS FLORIDA’S BIGGEST SOURCE OF INCOME— (Is the State REALLY going to let that flounder and die?)
The hotel only needs to notify its guests if it is made aware that a registered citizen (RC) is coming. So, if the local sheriff doesn’t contact them with the news, they have no worries. If the sheriff does contact them, or if the RC tells them, they just refuse to check that RC into the hotel. I don’t ever see an occasion when a smart hotelier has to be bothered by any of this. BTW, is the sex offender issue in this bill an issue for just one legislator (Ms. Goff-Marcil)? Have the legal committee guys reviewed it yet?
It’s within 1000 feet of the hotel. A hotel can’t prevent a RC from staying within 1000 feet of it.
So wrong. You say this will get overturned before it gets printed yet every year almost since 1998 they have passed more and more laws to regulate, control, and confine us. Please let me know what law in Florida has been overturned not county ordinances but Florida law.
Not being argumentative but once they pass them they stick.
How about the Internet Identifier URL requirements? That didn’t stick.
That is true. However the over all reporting of identifiers has stuck. But yes I stand corrected. I will rephrase, the majority of the laws they pass stick
I’m getting frustrated with those who are saying they hope this bill passes just because it won’t affect them personally since they don’t need to travel within the state for work and they believe passage will help the greater cause, which it most certainly will not. In fact, passage of the bill would deal a mighty blow against our cause and it would take up valuable financial resources fighting it in court, resources which are badly needed elsewhere (such as sustaining the Ex Post Facto Plus challenge).
Passage of this bill would make intrastate business travel a practical impossibility for those of us whom it affects, including me. We need to band together and support each other any time one of these draconian laws is proposed. State and local residency restrictions don’t happen to affect me (by the grace of God), but I fight them anyway — including having given money to FAC to support legal challenges — because taking away rights from one of us hurts all of us, whether or not the specific right being eroded affects me personally. It’s about the bigger picture, people.
AGREED and WELL STATED! Thanks RM.
For those who didn’t read last week’s member update, “Another reminder that came from this Call to Action is the importance of stepping up and pitching in for ALL of our efforts. Some of you might have received the email with the alert and thought, ‘I won’t bother responding to this one because I don’t travel that much.’ Keep in mind, when an issue that does impact you personally comes around, you will want to know you have our entire organization behind you.”
Excellent statement
I guess writing letters is better than doing nothing at all. But we know as well as anyone that these lawmakers aren’t doing the work of the public. They are doing the work for themselves. So unless we can get over 50% of Floridians to write a letter, spend your time doing something else. Like watching this video from Princeton about how laws are really written and what to do about the corruption of it all. A MUST WATCH:
Let me get this straight. If I come to Florida from Ohio, I have to come 48 hours prior to my stay at a hotel to the sheriff office to notify them where I will be staying?
If that’s the case, where would I be allowed to sleep in the 48 hours prior to me going to the hotel? Pretty dumb idea if you ask me
I can envision in the near future laws requiring all stores to install facial recognition systems, and immediately announce to the patrons that a registered sex offender has just entered the store. The stampede to the exits would be fun to watch. If this stupid law is enacted, I would encourage every person on the registry who can afford it to stay at one of those places whenever possible. The owners of the establishments would certainly flood their representative’s offices with complaints about how much money they are losing because of the law. Legislators pay attention when money is involved.
I don’t think that would happen.They’re privety owned, they will be like Disney, refuse to allow registered citizens to stay at their establishments.
Our best bet is call write opposing. Getting everyone one who you know to do the same. This bill and amendment to it is really low balling.
Support the ex-post Facto – sustanor, case.
Don’t lose hope, don’t stop believing.
Thanks Sailtime!
It’s situations like these where we all need to come together and do our parts.
No, you don’t get it. Facial recognition would be used to deny you entrance into the privately-owned store or staying at a hotel. Just like theme parks who want to block all sex offenders from entering their property like that guy Gerald Youmans who’s been all over the news recently.
https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2019/04/21/poulsbo-port-orchard-sex-offender-residences-zoning-changes/3524869002/
Laws Effecting Innkeepers
Many cities and states have laws on the books that require hotels to collect that information from guests and to show it to police if they stop by. The Supreme Court ruled that the latter is unconstitutional.
In Los Angeles, if a hotel owner refused to let police peek at their records, he or she could be charged with a misdemeanor, meaning potential jail time and a $1,000 fine. Disturbingly, as pointed out by Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic,the law turned hotels into a kind of state surveillance arm — forcing them to collect detailed information and then forcing them to turn it over without any judicial process. A group of L.A. hotel owners sued the city, saying this violated their Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches; in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court agreed with them. That means a hotel now has the right to protect guests’ privacy — but only if it wants to.
It is a violation of your right of privacy if the hotel discloses to another person which room you are staying in. However, a hotel may disclose whether or not you are a guest at the hotel unless you expressly instruct them not to do so.
Provided that the laws against discrimination are not violated, an innkeeper is not under obligation to receive as a guest everyone who applies. S/he has the right to reject or expel persons whom s/he reasonably deems objectionable. A person becomes a guest only if s/he is received to be treated as a guest and the intention to become such must be communicated to the innkeeper or his/her agent.
A guest of the registered occupant of a room at a hotel, who shares such room with its occupant without the knowledge or consent of the hotel management, will not be treated as a guest of the hotel. It is to be noted that the rights of hotel guests are not assignable or transferable. Therefore, if a registered guest, without permission from anyone representing the hotel, transferred a room to another person, that person will not have any right to its possession. Morningstar v. Lafayette Hotel Co., 211 N.Y. 465 (N.Y. 1914). It may be noted that a person who is not a guest and has no intention of becoming a guest will not have the legal right to enter or remain in a hotel against the will of the innkeeper. Such a person has a duty to leave peacefully when requested.
A guest admitted to an inn can be removed thereafter by the innkeeper for:
٠ refusal to pay his bill;
٠ becoming obnoxious to the other guests by his/her own fault;
٠ becoming a person of general bad reputation; or
٠ behaving in a disorderly manner.
An innkeeper can refuse to entertain “objectionable characters” that would otherwise injure his/her business and placing himself or his guests in a hazardous, uncomfortable, or dangerous situation. Raider v. Dixie Inn, 198 Ky. 152, 153-154 (Ky. 1923).
Florida does NOT want sex-offenders in their state-period!!
This is why they are drumming up unconstitutional and seemingly downright illegal laws to force sex offenders out! One man wanting to visit his daughter in Florida called the Sheriff’s office to let them know he was coming and the Sheriff flat out told him “We don’t want you here in this state and if you come here and we find you you will be arrested and possibly spend time behind bars!” So, there it is. Florida is trying to become a ‘sex-offender free’ state.
There’s nothing Florida can do to keep sex offenders out. Over 95% of reported sex offenses are perpetrated by someone with no criminal record. If Florida targets those with prior sex offense convictions— whose recidivism rates average in the single digits— they are playing a game of wac-a-mole and endangering Florida families with their security theater.
The sheriff who threatened to arrest someone for visiting his daughter is powerless to do so and in a weak position— unless that visitor is establishing a residence and expressly refusing to register in person as required by statute.
So let me get this straight. If I were a registrant, and I gave 48-hour notice to the cops, then checked into the Anita Bryant Gargantimus Hotel with, say, 400 rooms at 90% occupancy, then what would the hotel have to do: send a bellhop to each room, knock on the door, and say “Excuse me, hotel guest, but there’s a registered sex offender staying at this hotel in room 234″…? At 2 minutes a contact minimum, that’s a minimum of 12 hours to contact everyone in the hotel. Not to mention the manufactured fear they drum into their other guests.
No, this scenario would never happen. The first thing the hotel would do is to ban registrants from even staying. BONUS: Since you already contacted the cops, they put you on the registry for life plus a year after death. Fun times!