FAC April Legislative Update
We did not have any bills directly targeting us in any significant way. SB1654 only codified what most sheriff’s offices are already doing in terms of employment information, and the bill actually helped more than it hurt.
We now see that when it comes to so-called “public safety” and FDLE’s concerns about practical management of the registry, they choose the latter (allowing SPs to register temporary residences online and allowing “vehicles owned” to be registered online). In fact, this was one of our “hopes” for future legislation.
The other bills do not impact us directly and are part of the movement of states with conservative Legislatures to increase criminal penalties.
The minimum mandatory bill will have very little practical impact, in our opinion. Given the current landscape, we cannot see how a repeat offender with any of those charges would ever get less than the new minimums anyway and in most case, the minimum guidelines sentences will be above the new minimum mandatories. No one with a second strike on a sex offense will ever get a below guidelines sentence, much less a sentence of community supervision.
We see this year’s trend as the reversal of several years of hideous bills. To us, this was a good session.
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The sheriff’s office I go to that I will not name, has a high turnover rate of those who work in the registry office. Not sure what is causing it but I have to register 4 times a year and I never see the same person from last time and I have been registering at the same place since the registry was enacted in 1997. Despite that, I never had any of them treat me poorly.
On the other end of the spectrum, the same deputy has been coming to my house for at least 8 years and he treats me with respect as well and always asks if I am doing ok. If I am not home, he doesn’t bother the other neighbors, he just puts his business card in my door jam to let me know he was there, but that means another visit because I have to be home to complete the verification.
Cherokeejack,
It is always good to know that some of our enforcement folks treat PFR as people and with courtesy. I have been registering in Broward County four times-a-year since the Registry began and I have had the same experience you have with the folks at the registraton office. We have not had the turn-over and I feel warmly welcomed when I go in.
Having BSO come once-a-month for the check-ups, I have had a dew diferent officers but also always found them to be respectful and try to be invisible as possible. Sometimes, they just drove by and said they saw me walking the dog and that was enough. They even went months not coming at all except a quick drive by without slowing but recently they were told that have to stop and talk a moment so we are back to monthly visits. But they are always friendly and helpful if I ask for anything.
I wish we could help set-up this kind of atmosphere for all PFR (Persons Forced to Register).
AL
If you are not on probation, monthly visits is harassment. Since most of us are no longer on any sanctions, I propose any visits are harassment. Not blaming it on the deputies, but the lawmakers. The officers are doing what the lawmakers are making them do. However, if you are getting a visit every month, that is the sheriff’s office doing not the lawmakers, and excessive unless the person is a high risk, but still, is that on the books as legal?
What is to keep them from coming every day? When I was on probation, I only got one visit a month, so if you are getting once a month, that is shadowing probation tactics, and excessive.
LE can check as often as they want. There is no cap
Still harassment wouldn’t you agree?
That is why I got out of the former county I lived in, I just typed another post to someone about when I lived in my other county, they would rotate and come by multiple times a day. of course then I was on probation but they even sometimes came by at 1am in the morning and denied it when I made a complaint, which really pissed them off.