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UPDATE: You can watch the session live HERE.


HB 1085 is in the House Transportation & Modals Subcommittee where the wording has been changed.

The original bill stated: “shall have all personal information printed on the front of the license or identification card in the color red.”

The revised bill states: “shall have printed in the color red all information otherwise required to be printed on the front of the license or identification card.”

This Wednesday (March 15) at 3:00 pm this proposed committee substitute (PCS) will be considered. Make your calls today or leave messages after hours.

This change in HB 1085 occurs in lines 805-814.

 

Of the Utmost Importance:  Aides for members of the House Transportation & Modals Subcommittee are NOT receiving many calls on this bill.  The aides say that calls are more effective.  Emails are not always read in time.

 

PLEASE do the following:

  • Call all members of the House Transportation & Modals Subcommittee.
  • 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. (Refer to the previously posted Call to Action for HB 1085 at the FAC website for talking points.)
  • Ask family members and friends to also call to oppose the red lettering.

 

House Transportation & Modals Subcommittee for HB 1085:

1.  Fiona McFarland (Chair) (850) 717-5073
2.  Tom Fabricio (Vice Chair) (850) 717-5110
3.   Yvonne Hayes Hinson 850-717-5021
4.  Robert Alexander Andrade (850) 717-5002
5.  Kristen Aston Arrington (850) 717-5046
6.  Douglas Michael Bankson (850) 717-5039
7.  Fabian Basabe (850) 717-5106
8.  Jervonte Edmonds (850) 717-5088
9.  Anna Eskamani (850) 717-5042
10. Tiffany Esposito (850) 717-5077
11. Jennifer Harris (850) 717-5044
12. Vicki L. Lopez (850) 717-5043
13. Lauren Melo (239) 417-6270
14. Kiyan Michael (850) 717-5016
15. Angela Nixon (850) 717-5013
16. Juan Carlos Porras (850) 717-5119
17. David Smith (850) 717-5038
18. Paula A. Stark (850) 717-5047

Talking points – These are Facts that can be supported by evidence, studies and research

  • 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
  • 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.
  • While there is no research showing a need for this bill (lines 116-144), 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.

Talking points – Personal Opinions

If you choose to state a personal opinion, use respect when delivering what you intend to be a common sense remark and that is not intended to be received as an attack on the legislator(s).  The intent is to get them to think through their bill and the consequences, giving them scenarios that they may not have considered.

  • The proposed bill states: “A sexual offender or sexual predator who is asked by a law enforcement officer, school resource officer, school official, day care operator, or government official to present his or her driver’s license or identification card must completely remove the license or identification card from the place in which it is stored or contained and present the license or identification card to the law enforcement officer, school resource officer, school official, day care operator, or government official without any of the colors or markings required under subsection (3) being obscured or hidden.”
    • Doesn’t law enforcement require EVERYONE to remove their license from its holder and hand it to them?
    • Why is this specific to a law enforcement officer, school resource officer, school official, day care operator, or government official when the DL/ID is used for much more like cashing a check, boarding a plane, visiting in a hospital, buying a car and much more?
    • Is it only law enforcement officer, school resource officer, school official, day care operator, or government official that are unable to read the markings in black?
    • What if the reader is color-blind, will this matter to them, will they be less safe?
  • How many draconian registry requirements does it take for Florida Legislators who are using these simply to get votes?
  • This was all done by Louisiana to impose additional punishment on registered citizens under the guise of “regulation”.
  • Lawsuits are sure to follow if lines 116-144 are kept in HB 1085.
  • Where is the research to show that this bill will make society safer? There is no such research.
  • What has happened that would cause a Florida house member to propose such an additional restriction on the thousands of registrants on our state registry who are now law-abiding restrictions?
  • Being on the registry is for life in Florida, which is one of only three states that have such a requirement. If this bill passes, there are people who “mooned” their high school classmates, juveniles who texted nude photos to other juveniles, 22-year-olds who had consensual sex with their 17-year-old girlfriend/boyfriend and married them after release from prison, people with dementia or autism who unknowingly committed a sex offense, and the list goes on and on, who will be punished the rest of their lives because of this bill if it passes.

 

SPEAK UP – Make the phone calls and let them hear from you, a Florida Taxpayer, that the action in the lines we oppose are a waste of our tax dollars and have no impact on public safety.  STOP the shaming tactics.

Every call gets heard and tallied. Every respectful conversation with a staffer is an opportunity to spread the truth about our community. 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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