Florida sex offender law: Swimming pool rules spark debate
lorida law already banned sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, and playgrounds. The latest restriction extends that 1,000-foot exclusionary zone to include public swimming pools and splash pads.
The primary House sponsor, State Rep. Rachel Plakon (R-Seminole), stressed that the new law targets specific offenses. As written, it applies to offenders who have committed crimes against a minor. This can include repeat sexual predators as well as individuals convicted of a single offense.
While the bill passed with overwhelming support, a vocal minority of critics — including a handful of state lawmakers, the libertarian Reason Foundation, and some child victim advocates — warn the legislation could backfire and undermine public safety.
Because swimming pools are prevalent in Florida subdivisions, apartment complexes, and mobile home communities, critics argue the law will severely limit compliant housing options.
Critics express severe concern over the real-world impact of the law. House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said, “Any time that I see that the staff is contradicting what the bill sponsor is trying to do, my antennae go up. … The fact the legislature passed this bill even knowing that there were these concerns should be a red flag to everybody.”
Hanna Liebman Dershowitz of the Reason Foundation stated, “Making it harder for them to get housing is really the opposite of a public safety strategy. It will undermine public safety. You can’t monitor people if they’re effectively off the map.”
Child victim advocate and sex crime survivor Gretchen Casey noted, “Generally, people don’t commit crimes of a sexual nature in public areas, okay. They do it where there is less likely to be, perhaps, a witness.”
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I really wish these reporters would stop citing the 2003 Harris and Hanson report because it was not a study of US recidivism rates.
I was interviewed by this reporter about three months ago and I sent him a more accurate list of recidivism studies, even a newer one by Hanson and Prescott in 2025 that found that ““The sexual recidivism rates were 3% to 5% after five years and 10% after 20 years.”
They won’t dare quote one of us anti-registry activists that speak the truth, but they’ll cite some low-OQ redneck sheriff who spews nonsense between their dips of Skoal.
This is one of the better articles written my more main stream showing the controversial butting heads of the legislature
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fox13news.com/news/florida-sex-offender-law-swimming-pool-rules-spark-debate.amp
I’ve told some neighbors about these new legal fictions from the corrupt goon squad in Tallahassee. They want to know how it makes anyone safer. They feel it’s about banishing people and don’t feel it’s right. They still have their souls. They are praying for our son’s safety as well as his family.
The thing our son and family have going for us is that we’ve lived in the same home 24+ years so we know other longtime neighbors. They actually know us and have spent time around our son.
ANNNND they think politicians are scummy and that government has gone to complete corruption. They’re just as angry as we are about those undesirable goons blocking property tax relief. It’s obvious they don’t work for us and they’re making that more pronounced every day. In fact, they are most definitely working against all of us.
Side note: Operation Silver Spurs, that our son got kidnapped during because of his dad‘s failure to communicate a new plate to me or our son, got his first call about the CHANNEL 9 WFTV news segment a few days ago.
The company owner that called, contracts work out to our son. Some “karen” had seen the propaganda “news” segment and sent it to the company owner with the screenshot of our son‘s photo. So the company owner called him to have a chat about the details of what happened. Our son is contracted to work for him next week. He also thought him being forced to register over pictures that were deleted after seeing was absolute insanity.
After our son explained the license plate reporting requirement and what happened, the owner was very, very shocked. I could hear the conversation because it was on speaker. He was not aware the extent families are being forced into this. He became alarmed and he was already not at all a fan of the Tallahassee goons. It sounded like he actually got angry that someone could go to jail for something like that.
Here’s the thing… The amoral corrupted legislators are going to keep going for personal gain which blinds them to facts. And the more people that get forced to register, the quicker it’s gonna crush itself and them. Because we know that around 97% of these “crimes“ are people not already forced to register.
Isn’t it funny how something is not a crime until greedy, manipulated, corrupted, opportunist politicians CONjure it up to be a crime? So many things are a crime now that were not when I was growing up. The opportunists are constantly looking for ways to get votes and pad their bank accounts. It’s absolute tyrannical corruption.
Go back in history and look at all the absolutely insane laws of the past. Women were stoned to death if caught in adultery, but the man walked free. Think about it.
Research insane laws that eventually were overturned as consciousness evolved. Because of the dumbing down and intentional suppression of truths, rising to higher consciousness has somewhat stagnated. It’s all intentional. They lose control when everyone is fully aware and we finally unite as we were before the invasion and occupation. We must work harder.
Are they going to do a article or just talking with news outlet?
Why can’t legislators, cops, judges, social workers and the public in general understand this simple, common sense concept that The Reason Foundation brought forth? It is clear, concise, and so easy to put into action. It would also eliminate the need for a good majority of useless, punitive residency restriction laws already on the books in most, if not all states.
As quoted from article above:
Hanna Liebman Dershowitz of the Reason Foundation stated, “Making it harder for them (registrants) to get housing is really the opposite of a public safety strategy. It will undermine public safety. You can’t monitor people if they’re effectively off the map.”
Simply translated, put registrants back on the map by eliminating residency restrictions for people who are forced to register, and allow them to live wherever housing is available so they can be effectively monitored.
All existing data already tells us that the next victim of a sexual offense will most likely be the victim’s relative, neighbor, friend, school acquaintance, coach, teacher, clergy, or other individual who is familiar with the victim but not yet on the registry.
It’s high time we look at real data and formulate our laws around it, not around emotional reactions that do the exact opposite of what we seek.
There is a larger issue underlying all of this. In my view, a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling contributed to giving state legislatures broad discretion to write and enforce laws that can have punitive effects, even when they are legally classified differently. As a result, laws and their enforcement vary significantly from state to state.
Florida, in my opinion, has become one of the states where this has been taken the furthest. I do not believe individual police officers are entirely responsible for how these operations are carried out. From what I have observed, much of the pressure appears to come from higher levels of management and government. Departments are expected to meet performance goals and justify their budgets from year to year, which can create incentives to focus on easier enforcement actions. While those actions may be legal under current state law, that does not necessarily mean the laws themselves are fair or just.
The question is: who is applying that pressure? In my view, it comes from those who oversee and manage law enforcement agencies rather than from the officers on the street alone.
History shows that laws can and do change. Prohibition ended, voting laws have evolved, and many other laws once considered acceptable have later been revised or repealed. The fact that something is legal today does not guarantee it will always remain that way.
the reason why legislators, cops, prosecutors, social workers and judges wont touch the registry is because of Money. cops and Prosecutors get money to maintain registrations, and the more registrations they have the more money they get from the feds. social workers here in Tallahassee, make money from the MANDATORY sex offender treatment and require you to pay cash. Judges, Prosecutors, and legislators dont want to hurt their reputation or jobs by being easy on sex offenders. Follow the corrupt money and there you will find the constitutional violations of many and all sex offender. They get away with it because it looks good politically, when they lie about it on the media
State prosecutors get paid by the state, not the Feds. And it’s a public salary. There is no “sex offender registration bonus.”
Same for state judges. How are we following the money here?
FAC has a good posting of this money stream coming down on the side of DHS if im not mistaken. Could you repost or reference this FAC was a few months back showing what where the funds from top come from
This was a read that was a breath of fresh air. Knowing people are aware that harsher laws only create increased risks there are people willing to speak up.
Research Supports Many of These Concerns
The concerns raised by lawmakers, policy experts, and victim advocates are consistent with a growing body of criminal justice research examining the effectiveness of residency restrictions.
House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell questioned why legislators proceeded despite warnings raised during the legislative process:
“Any time that I see that the staff is contradicting what the bill sponsor is trying to do, my antennae go up. … The fact the legislature passed this bill even knowing that there were these concerns should be a red flag to everybody.”
Those concerns are echoed by research from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which found that residency restrictions have shown little evidence of reducing sexual reoffending, while potentially creating unintended public safety risks by making stable housing more difficult to obtain. Researchers concluded that housing instability can increase absconding from supervision and make successful community reintegration more challenging.
Hanna Liebman Dershowitz of the Reason Foundation argued:
“Making it harder for them to get housing is really the opposite of a public safety strategy. It will undermine public safety. You can’t monitor people if they’re effectively off the map.”
Recent NIJ-sponsored research supports this concern, finding that individuals released under residency restriction policies experienced greater housing instability and more frequent moves, factors associated with increased technical supervision violations and poorer reentry outcomes.
Child victim advocate and survivor Gretchen Casey also challenged the assumption that restricting where someone lives addresses how most sexual offenses occur:
“Generally, people don’t commit crimes of a sexual nature in public areas. They do it where there is less likely to be, perhaps, a witness.”
Research reviewed by the NIJ similarly found that, in the cases studied, none of the offenses would likely have been prevented by residency restrictions, largely because victims were commonly targeted through existing relationships or locations unrelated to where the offender lived.
SUMMARY
Rather than focusing solely on residency restrictions, many researchers recommend evidence-based strategies such as individualized risk assessment, effective community supervision, access to stable housing, treatment when appropriate, and resources that improve compliance with registration and supervision requirements. These approaches have been identified as more consistent with reducing recidivism and improving public safety than blanket residency restrictions alone.
References
National Institute of Justice. Residency Restrictions and Sex Offender Recidivism: Implications for Public Safety (2009)
https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/residency-restrictions-and-sex-offender-recidivism-implications-public-safety?
National Institute of Justice
Rydberg, Grommon, Huebner & Bynum. Effect of Statewide Residency Restrictions on Sex Offender Post-Release Housing Mobility (Justice Quarterly, 2013).
https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/effect-statewide-residency-restrictions-sex-offender-post-release-housing
National Institute of Justice
National Institute of Justice. Evaluation of Sex Offender Residency Restrictions in Michigan and Missouri (2013).
https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/evaluation-sex-offender-residency-restrictions-michigan-and-missouri
National Institute of Justice
Kelly M. Socia. Residence Restriction Legislation, Sex Crime Rates, and the Spatial Distribution of Sex Offender Residences
https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/effect-statewide-residency-restrictions-sex-offender-post-release-housing
Kelly M. Socia. Residence Restriction Legislation, Sex Crime Rates, and the Spatial Distribution of Sex Offender Residences (2011)
https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/residence-restriction-legislation-sex-crime-rates-and-spatial-distribution-sex
National Institute of Justice
Rydberg et al. Investigating the Effect of Post-Release Housing Mobility on Recidivism (2022).
https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/investigating-effect-post-release-housing-mobility-recidivism-considering
Thank you for your post. I’m going as a Lone Ranger to speak to our Nebraska governor about the topic of sex offenders and creating more common sense laws and interventions. I’m going to use this as a part of my presentation.
I can assure you that Pillen the Villain doesn’t give a rat’s you-know-what about our plight. He needs to be voted out. Brett Linstrom wouldn’t be a good candidate, so it is down to Lynn Walz or Rick Beard.
You may have better luck with certain legislators.
Nebraska isn’t the worst state for us by any stretch of the imagination but I’m still thinking of suing them over their attempts to ask info from me that they KNOW they have not been granted the authority to ask.
But if you need some backup I’m ready to assist unless you’re doing it next week.