CTA: Florida bill banning SOs from residing near pools, beaches, lakes, rivers
House Bill 45 and Senate Bill 212 seek to add to the 1,000 ft residency restrictions of childcare facilities, schools, parks and playgrounds by including “public swimming pools” and “public bathing places”. These residency restrictions result in 80% or more of Florida being off limits for registrant housing. Registrants who have committed one of the enumerated offenses; involving a victim under 16 years of age; and after 2004 for a Florida offense or 2010 for an out-of-state offense would be required to move before July 1, 2026, under the current version of the law.
The Florida Sheriffs Association President stated that these bills close a loophole and are a priority of the Florida Sheriffs Association. The Senate sponsor stated the bill is a clarification, but it’s actually an expansion. They want to expand the exclusion zone.
Florida Statute 514.011 Definitions. (2) “Public swimming pool” or “public pool” means a watertight structure of concrete, masonry, or other approved materials which is located either indoors or outdoors, used for bathing or swimming by humans, and filled with a filtered and disinfected water supply, together with buildings, appurtenances, and equipment used in connection therewith. A public swimming pool or public pool shall mean a conventional pool, spa-type pool, wading pool, special purpose pool, spray pool, splash pad, or water recreation attraction, to which admission may be gained with or without payment of a fee and includes, but is not limited to, pools operated by or serving camps, churches, cities, counties, “child care facilities” via this bill to replace “day care centers”, group home facilities for eight or more clients, health spas, institutions, parks, state agencies, schools, subdivisions, or the cooperative living-type projects of five or more living units, such as apartments, boardinghouses, hotels, mobile home parks, motels, recreational vehicle parks, and townhouses.
Florida Statute 514.011 Definitions. (4) “Public bathing place” means a body of water, natural or modified by humans, for swimming, diving, and recreational bathing used by consent of the owner or owners and held out to the public by any person or public body, irrespective of whether a fee is charged for the use thereof. The bathing water areas of public bathing places include, but are not limited to, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, artificial impoundments, and waters along the coastal and intracoastal beaches and shores of the state.
TALKING POINTS: Your first two sentences should be “I oppose HB 45 and SB 212. They are fundamentally and morally flawed.”
Please choose one or two points at the most. Use your own words. Tell personal stories in an uplifting manner such as “I served 10 years in prison, 5 years on probation and now support my spouse and children and give to my community”.
If you are using the telephone, please keep your message to 1 minute or less. If you are emailing, please keep your message to three paragraphs or less. If you call after hours, your voice mail will be counted.
FAMILY IMPACTS: This bill will –
Eliminate safe housing for thousands of people who will no longer be able to live in places that are safe for registrants and their children/families (not usually targeted by vigilantes).
Force me to move from my home of decades, leave my neighbors and job. The water-related restrictions would apply retroactively to those with offenses after Oct 1, 2004. This bill would immediately eject those who were previously in compliance if their offense date is after Oct. 1, 2004.
Prevent my children and me from living in our home.
Prevent my tenants from living in a safe, secure environment.
LEGAL IMPACTS:
HB 45 and SB 212 are perhaps illegal and unconstitutional as they would result in most of Florida being an exclusion zone for people on the sex offender registry.
A map of Florida “public swimming pool and public bathing places” exclusion zones is required for law enforcement and registrants to be compliant.
Banishment: Approximately 74% (reasonable range 65 – 80%) of existing dwelling units in Florida are within 1,000 feet of water/pools (Chat GPT estimate using GIS-based data). Further, with the inclusion of other current Florida statute residency restrictions, this bill, if enacted, would result in most of Florida being an exclusion zone for people on the sex offender registry.
In Miami-Dade county, 94% (reasonable range 90 – 97%) of existing dwelling units are within 1,000 feet of water/pools (Chat GPT estimate using GIS-based data).
Similar to the overall Florida population, most people labeled as sex offenders currently live within 1,000 ft of either a public bathing place or a public swimming pool as defined in Florida Statutes.
Mass Migration: This bill would require thousands of registrants, their children, and their families to move to “dry land” small inclusion zones in the larger counties and the Panhandle where jobs are scarce. Hence, increasing dependency on social services.
EMAIL ADDRESSES and PHONE NUMBERS for house criminal justice subcommittee:
Chair Danny Alvarez: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5069
Vice Chair Webster Barnaby: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5029
Democratic Ranking Member Johanna Lopez: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5043
Rep. Jessica Baker: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5017
Rep. Doug Bankson: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5039
Rep. Robin Bartleman: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5103
Rep. Robert Brackett: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5034
Rep. Tom Fabricio: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5110
Rep. Michael Gottlieb: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5102
Rep. Sam Greco: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5019
Rep. JJ Grow: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5023
Rep. Dianne Hart: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5063
Rep. Bill Partington: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5028
Rep. Rachel Plakon: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5036
Rep. Kelly Skidmore: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5092
Rep. Kevin Steele: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5055
Rep. Taylor Yarkosky: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5025
EMAIL ADDRESSES and PHONE NUMBERS for Senate criminal justice committee:
Chair Senator Jonathan Martin: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] 850-487-5033
Vice Chair Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith: [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5017
Senator Mack Bernard: [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5024
Senator Jennifer Bradley: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5006
Senator IIeana Garcia: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5036
Senator Jason Pizzo: [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5037
Senator Corey Simon: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5003
Senator Clay Yarborough: [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5004
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I sat down and shot emailes after emailes to everyone on this list and I had my family help me do it because there was quite a few. Which is good, thank you FAC, But don’t ban my comment when I say that Jesus is the way out of this. ( you’ve been known to do it) We faught hard and know the truth, is that all that matters?
Remember what Jesus went through, spoke truth and still died for truth. Stand strong my PFRs
Hi All. So what am i missing?
775.215 Residency restriction for persons convicted of 52
certain sex offenses.— ……….
..Sub Section 3. However, a person does not violate this subsection and may not be forced to relocate if he or she is living in a residence that meets the requirements of this subsection and a school, child
care facility, park, public swimming pool, public bathing place, or playground is subsequently established within 1,000 feet of his or her residence. This lines 78 to 83
I am not seeing where this is retroactive. Yes I see the verbiage about 2004 and 2010 but that is for releasees whose offenses were after those dates are on Probation or community control.
To my knowledge those not on probation and whose offenses were before 2004 are not subjected to any of this non-sense.
Please if am missing something tell me.
I had always wondered how one could be aware of each and every child care facility, when it’s Millie on the corner’s personal choice to take a few small children into her home weekdays, and whether that is considered a “child care location”, which is similar to the myriad of questions that would be raised by this intrusive and dysfunctional proposal, which protects no identified “vulnerable” group.
It’s so typical of Legislatures, who find it easy to support anything that rings the alarm of purported public safety, with no data or evidence of such.
Needs to be noted, a hotel pool is not a public pool, but a private pool since you need to be a guest at the hotel to use it and not open to the public. A church pool or a camp swimming area is not a public area but a private area where you must be admitted to use it and thus cannot be restricted. A health spa pool is private, not public, as is a housing development, golf club membership, etc. You get the point.
They are trying to conflate what is public v private and get the masses confused on them to get it passed into law. This needs to be distinguished when talking with legislators, et al. Pick it apart very carefully but very thoroughly to show what is actually private v public. Where it is picked to be public when it is actually private will open it up to legal challenges but also other allowances to make private areas public. Semantics people, semantics. Very important.
The owners of these areas as well need to be aware of this set of bills to defeat it so they are not unknowingly classified as a public area when they are actually private.
This bill, not even factoring the county ordinance, would virtually make the entire state, off limits to a lot of people. Myself included.
We believe that HB 45, as currently drafted, will impact about 17,000 ex-offenders who have been released from all sanctions, and around 6,000 more who are on probation, community control, or supervised release. In total, HB 45 would eject some 23,000 Florida citizens from their current residences with no due process whatsoever. The chaos that ensues on all sides would be unprecedented. It is imperative that we stop this bill, or at the very least its current version, from passing. Everyone needs to raise their voice to lawmakers in Tallahassee to tell them this is a horrible bill for everyone and will result in extreme unintended consequences.
I am just not seeing this. Where is it stated that those residing in the new no go zones would have to move? Please see my comment above I put the text of the bill in my post.
It’s in analysis completed by the House Committee to which the bill is current assigned. Also, the clear language of the bill would impact any PFR with a qualifying Florida offense committed on or after October 1, 2004.
The analysis is available at https://www.flhouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=h0045.CRM.DOCX&DocumentType=Analysis&BillNumber=45&Session=2026
RM,
I hear you but that is not how I read that:
EFFECT OF THE BILL:
Residency Restrictions for Persons Convicted of Certain Sexual Offenses
The bill prohibits a person who has been convicted of committing specified sexual offenses in Florida or an offense in another jurisdiction that is similar to such specified sexual offense, regardless of whether adjudication has been withheld, in which the victim was less than 16 years of age from residing within 1,000 feet of any public swimming pool or public bathing place.
A person who is subject to the residency restrictions in the bill would not be required
to move if he or she is living in a residence that meets existing residency requirements and a public swimming pool
or public bathing place is subsequently established within 1,000 feet of his or her residence.
This basically says that if you are good now and a pool or public bathing place is built after you are already there they cant make you move. Logic says that is you live within a 1000 feet now of one they cant make you move. The Inference is the same.
Not trying to argumentative here but no where in the bill do I see retro active application and forcing 27,000 people to move. Perhaps FAC can reach out to the bills creator and Clarify that point.
27,000 people will not have to move. That’s 99.9% a certainty.
The language of the bill (as it is currently written, not as it may hereafter be amended) states that someone who is living someplace and subject to the ordinance (victim under 16, after 2004 for a Florida conviction, after 2010 for a similar conviction in another jurisdiction), and the public bathing area was put in AFTER they established their residence, will not have to move. So, if they are subject to the ordinance, moved into a place that was within 1000 feet of an existing “public bathing area”, and now the law is amended to include that existing area, technically they would be in violation of the statute.
I’m not a betting person, but I’d bet that the language will be amended, because not 27K, but potentially thousands of people will now find themselves in violation of the law and subject to the penalties contained in the statute unless they choose to move.
So then FAC-3, not to nit pick but I was correct. If you are currently living in a place that is within the 1000ft added pool and water restrictions you dont have to move. It is only going forward that all the same residency restrictions are in place with the Pool and Public bathing places is added. Let me make sure i understand by example.
1. PFR lives within 1000 feet of pool now. Once this passes they dont have to move.
2. PFR wants to move to a new location. If it is within 1000 feet of a pool or public bathing place, that new residence will not be allowed.
From what I read the only part of this about 2004 offense dates is if you are on Probation or Parole.
Do I have this correct. I am pre registry pfr but just trying to get total clairity.
You are incorrect.
First, if you are pre-registry (1997), you don’t have to worry about this bill at all. It will not have any effect on you.
Second, if another person committed a qualifying offense after 2004 (or 2010 if another jurisdiction), moved into a home in 2011 and that home was within 1000 feet of an existing public pool or bathing area, and this bill becomes law, they WILL be in violation of the statute. If they moved into the home in 2011 and the pool or public bathing area was installed in 2012, they won’t.
WOW. Talk about retroactively applying policy. Thank you for that precise clarification. I do have a hard time seeing how they will pass this. Is there a way we can start gathering funds for an injunction that can be filed forthwith if it does pass. Not sure how forcing someone to move 14 years later is not punishment, I am not sure what is. Perhaps this bill if passed will be the collapse of the registry. If this passes what’s next. If you live with in 1000 feet of a church, you have to move? After all most churches have Sunday School?
Is it only residency or is it visiting also. IE someone put a post about going fishing.
If we can start the fund to pass the injunction, I will donate $100.00 per paycheck to the fund. I get 3 a month.
Tearfuleagle
God bless you for offering to donate, as many of us have no income and warriors like yourself does to me what your screen name says, tearful but in a good way.
Virtual hugs, blessings and thanks for stepping up.
I hope someday FAC goes away (In a good way) because it would no longer be needed. But for now, FAC is our superpower protectors. Like superman Truth, Justice and the American way. (Although America has lost their way when it comes to justice and fairness)
Added post when I put Florida 2026 HB45 into CoPilot AI it is saying that it is retroactively applied not just back to 2004 can you help with this. I checked my address and the closest thing to me is .3 miles.
Suppose someone bought a house 40 years ago (in 1985) one block away from a beach (that has been a public bathing place since 1937 and they (a florida resident) were prosecuted in 2007 for an enumerated crime within the State of Florida.
Then (the way I read it) they would suddenly be compelled to move from their residence of 40 years! (For, the establishment of the public bathing area pre-dated their establishment of the residency.)
This is a very austere law, indeed!
There has to be some legality challenges to this. Telling someone where they can and cant live and mandating them to leave with no grandfather clause. I see this being dragged in court.
It won’t have to go to court at all, if we prevent it from becoming law in the first place.
PFR
They can drag my dead cold body out before they make me move. But where I live, mostly the sheriff’s office treats us with respect as long as we respect them back.