Florida’s Sex Offender Registry Proves Inescapable
From The Appeal
Critics say the state’s policy of keeping non-residents on the registry bloats the list—and harms public safety.
It was the kind of headline guaranteed to generate clicks even over the winter holidays and amid a federal government shutdown: “Number of Sex Offenders Living in Florida Is Growing,” warned the Associated Press. In December, the Florida legislative auditor’s office released a report noting that the number of people on the state’s sex offender registry had expanded 53 percent since 2005, to about 73,000.
But the report also contains this detail: 60 percent of those on the list live out of state, are in prison, or have been deported—up from the 43 percent in those categories in the auditors’ first report in 2006.
That’s because Florida’s registry increasingly scoops up anyone who has ever lived there or visited. Under state law, anyone with a sex crime in their past who comes to Florida for three days or more—say, a long weekend at Disney World or a business conference—has to visit a sheriff’s office to get fingerprinted and photographed and turn over myriad other details. The state then publishes those and keeps these new registrants on its public list for a minimum of 25 years.
Not only does that artificially inflate Florida’s list, critics say—it makes it impossible for those who have served a sentence and moved away to start over, even when their new home jurisdictions don’t require them to be publicly listed.
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Awesome article to help people become aware of the situation Florida has created. Also exposing Florida for their fake numbers scam. Scooping up anyone who visits to expand their make-believe scare registry. How are you a threat to anyone in Florida if you don’t live there.
See they don’t really go by the laws as in article aug 8 2014 tampa st petersburg paper we r all with ya sir hang in there
It be very nice to see Florida lose all that money!!
From the article:
” Under state law, anyone with a sex crime in their past who comes to Florida for three days or more—say, a long weekend at Disney World or a business conference ”
long weekend at Disney World ?? lol. Even Disney would be laughing at that one. Bad example as Disney bans us from entry and will be ready to escort us out of their park in no time.
I’m just curious, how would Disney even know? Do they check ID now?
That’s a good question. I’m not sure how they do it, but there have been registered citizens in the past that have been denied access. Maybe they do check IDs or the people denied paid with a credit card and they tracked it. Not sure.
Disney does a background check on everyone that purchases an annual pass since all annual pass holders need to be identified. I would also suggest a non registrant use thier credit card to purchase on line one time tickets in case they do random checks on those as well.
I asked a friend in LE who works Disney area. She said they find out via annual passes because those require ID. But daily passes don’t require ID. So, if anyone goes, just buy a daily admission ticket to the parks and pay with cash…not credit card (unless someone elses buys it on credit card).
@ notadisneyfan and @ Jay
Thank you both for the info.
“So, if anyone goes, just buy a daily admission ticket to the parks and pay with cash…not credit card (unless someone elses buys it on credit card).”
Good old cash is still king. Best and safe way to pay.
Yup that is how I have gotten around to places with my family. They pay with their credit card or we pay with cash. I just can’t see a place like Disney asking every family member for their IDs at their ticket purchase admission booths.
Yes but there are ways around that.
The article notes the attorney is suing the state of Florida. I see FAC is raising money for an out of state challenge. Would one not help the other? How do we follow this case or find out more?
We are in close communication and can talk about her case on the next member call
So in other words they are not interested then? some of us don’t do member calls because of Long distance charges.
you can join the member calls online too
Please remind all of the phone number(s) to call. It has disappeared from the screen. Nor is it listed in the weekly e-Mail.
Please re-post!
Thank you
its on our homepage.
I definitely feel for anyone that has had the misfortune of being encapsulated in the Florida out of state registry. FDLE puts your name on Google search, so if someone Googles your name the first thing that comes up is sex offender.
I had a lewd and lascivious act in presence of minor out of Florida in 1988. I don’t have to register anymore, but if someone Googles my name, there I am. I have been screwed hundreds of times over this. I have not been in trouble with the law since, but when people see this, they fear the worst. Can’t say that I blame them, but is there a public safety issue? NO. Therefore people need to fight these draconian measures by contributing to the out of state registry lawsuit currently taking contributions at FAC. This is the only way, or one of the best ways to get results. It has to come back to Florida, and fought in the court system in the state originating this crap. The sooner FAC reaches the financial goal toward the out of state registry lawsuit, The sooner attorneys can start filing their petitions.
I just can’t believe that this flagrant violation of human dignity and justice is still happening, and here in the United States!
Unfortunately, Amerikkka has been a police state since 9/11. Case in point, in my lower-middle class neighborhood, I saw no fewer than 12 cop cars assemble to catch three teenagers of color suspected of house burglary. The mayor and sheriff are still asking for more cops. Even a traffic stop here guarantees at least three cop cars. Hostage situation, over 50 cop cars.
All it would take is one millionaire/billionaire sex offender to get the best lawyers and get rid of the registry and all that comes with it,, the question is why this has not happened yet? The answer is it happened multiple times already in the last 25 years,,these millionaire/billionaire sex offenders have already talked with the best lawyers about this and the lawyers tell them not to waist there money because nothing is gonna change this,, nothing at all.
Riff – and how do you have that answer?
People don’t care about others…. I had donated to all three funds and I am out of state. We live in era of “It all about me and hell with the next man”
So then the question becomes how do we address this problem with legislators and correct it?
If we’ve learned nothing else over the last 20 years, legislators aren’t going to address the problem. True, we can sometimes defeat idiotic bills if we catch them early enough. But no legislator is going write a registrant-friendly bill or look into repealing the idiocy already in effect.
For now, we can only fight incrementally in cases like this. But we can’t allow ourselves to be satisfied with small victories. Eventually, as more people (not just registrants) are affected by the registry, the political winds will change and then we can get serious about abolishment en totem, a fight that should never be conceded.
Legislators don’t make policy based on logic, you win these battles in the courts.