CALL TO ACTION: Oppose HB 987: Public Lodging Establishments
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:Â https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Committees/committees.aspx
You can find all Representatives here:Â Florida House of Representatives Complete List
You can find all Senators here:Â Florida Senate Complete List
You can find your specific State and US Representatives here: https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
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48 hours, then in a couple of years they move it down to 24 hours, then in short time after, they’ll just have us log in everywhere we go through out the day similar to what they already have in sex offender probation. They might as well just call this for what it is….probation….and probation is a punishment.
I just had a thought, how would this affect those going to a hotel/resort to attend an event (wedding, reunion, business meeting etc) for just the day? What about to visit a bar or restaurant in the hotel? In Jacksonville there’s a comedy club inside of one of the chain hotels, would that fall under these ridiculous guidelines too?
Wouldn’t this subvert the 3 days or longer = temporary address if I only intended to stay for two?
So silly.
This is yet another attempt by the Floriduh legislature to put all registered citizens on house arrest. It is akin to wearing a GPS monitor without the monitor, but reporting our coordinates to law enforcement so they know where we are 24 hours a day. It is also compelled speech (“Hey, I’m a ‘sex offender'”) and unequal treatment under the law unless it is applied to all felons.
No establishment will rent to us if this bill is signed into law. We will have to establish an underground railroad to stay at each others houses while travelling!
If this isn’t punishment, what is?
Lets not play there labeling game. Words define and they are not the thing. They can call this regulatory but the truth is that it Florida has lifetime probation for ALL those designated with the label “sex offender”.
If it had been stated outright that LIFETIME PROBATION was part of the plea bargain I would have gone to trial. Everyday I wish I had gone to trial instead of handing my life to Florida!
When is enough enough?
Question: What about those Registrants who are NOT Mickey Mouse Residents that are planing to visit their Family in Florida? No way possible to appear 48 hours before you get there? OXYMORON at best….These Muderskunk Legislators are DUMB AND BLIND AT THE SAME TIME…..
If I am travelling in Florida for more than 2 or 3 days I let my wife get our room in her name. One time I was in to register and the person registering told me he knew someone who left the state without registering a few times and was real lucky he didn’t get caught. How do you explain “Real Lucky”? Do we have a 90% chance of being pulled over when we are on the road not following our requirements? Do they have a tracker on us? In my entire life, before and after my conviction, I have been pulled over a total of 2 times for speeding. Police don’t just say “oh there is a sex offender, let us pull him over and make sure he is where he should be”. Millions of people travel without having a run in with the police so I don’t know how they try to tell me we are going to get caught if we don’t follow the registration requirements. It’s more a scare tactic than anything…My last trip to Florida last month I spent a week in Miami by myself at a hotel and didn’t have any problems. I got home and no one was the wiser.
Regarding how do they know…if you fly into FL., they know. The airlines have the name and address of everyone that flies. You present ID at the gate to confirm you are the one flying. Make no mistake, the FBI checks these manifests for “terrorists”. A check by LE can confirm your departure date. Over stay your time and fail to register, you may find LE waiting for at your check in. FAC has reported stories of people on International flights being denied because their passport did not have the scarlet letter. Point being “they” ARE watching.
One other data point, leave your cell phone at home. You probably have to list that with your local PD. Moving around unfamiliar territory, you may violate keep out zones that exist in that state so no point leaving electronic bread crumbs.
The only real issue here is…how hard does LE want to catch SO’s that fly in and do not or fail to register or in some other way violate their laws.
I will not knowingly violate the laws of any state I visit. FL., I just avoid altogether. I’m sure that is what they want anyway. While SO’s are not “welcomed” by any state, there are other wonderful places to visit that are not nuts like FL.
@DM
The problem with what you wrote is local LE is only going to check with national LE if they are alerted to do so. Don’t think national LE is going to sit around alerting local LE of a person impacted by the registry coming and going from FLA when they have other things to do of higher importance. Yes, national LE has access to the flight passenger manifests (not local LE), but they enforce federal law, not local law. As much as people want to think national LE and local LE work well together, national LE is not a babysitting service to warn local LE of someone who flies in and out of their state and when unless there is a national interest.
The other problem with this situation is if you fly into FLA and cross a state line to the north for a visit, then national LE has alerted a local LE to a non-situation for no reason and possibly created legal issues for themselves. At the same time, if someone buys a one-way ticket into FLA and leaves it by whatever means, e.g. auto, private plane, bus, or boat, then there could be issues there.
As always, those impacted by the registry should research their travel destinations, know the laws of them, and ask questions, if any doubt, of those who know the laws, not the local LE who will tell you what they want you to know, which could be counter to what the real law is.