‘Miya’s Law’ set to take effect January 1st
Beginning Sunday, Jan. 1, landlords will be required to keep an accurate log of everyone who has been issued a copy of an apartment key.
Also, all employees of any licensed lodging establishment must get a criminal and sex offender background check for every employee they hire. Those who don’t can lose their license.
If you work in any sort of job doing facilities maintenance, be advised of this new law taking place and consult with your employer as to how this may impact your employment.
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Sounds like a perfect recipe for forced tax and bookkeeping evasion Just like legislation did to drugs. They passed laws which didn’t do anything to solve the use . They only accomplished driving it underground so nobody really knew what was going on with it. Eventually, now they have legalized them and let people out of prison. Another example of government failure.
How might this apply to a sex offender who rents out apartments, or owns their own roadside motel? Would they be forced out their own income earning businesses?
Nothing in this law forces registrant landlords out of business.
This “law” was borne out of 2202’s SB 898 and codified common practices of screening potential employees:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/898/BillText/er/PDF
The screening portion of the bill created another new law:
https://flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2022/0083.515
The list of disqualifying offenses is not enumerated, but paints a wide swath of red over a large percentage of ex-offenders:
83.515 (3)(b) A criminal offense committed in any jurisdiction which involves violence, including, but not limited to, murder, sexual battery, robbery, carjacking, home-invasion robbery, and stalking.
While the keymaster provision of the bill amended an existing law by adding Section (5):
https://flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2022/0509.211
And the hourly rate provision spawned yet another new law:
https://flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2022/0509.098
So more new laws and regulations which are based solely on what a person has done in the past without regard as to whether the person is a risk of committing a present or future crime. More disenfranchisement.
Cherokee Jack
You are sooo right on. Those that are schizophrenic go on medication and never come off. Therapy can help but is not a cure all for everything unless the cause of there actions are pinpointed along with a full understanding of why they must change and a reason for doing so. They may just not understand that there actions are harmful to someone else. A desire to please a higher power who sees all actions can be the most compelling reason for doing so.
The management company said in a statement in October that “all employees are vetted using a national background check service” and that Caballero had “no record of burglary or sexual assault.” (https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-legislature-passes-miyas-law-mandates-background-checks/story?id=83409071)
So if the guy had no criminal background, how would this law have helped to prevent this crime?
No law that has ever been named after a crime victim would have made a difference in the crime that prompted it had it been in effect at the time.
This law in particular is useless for a number of reasons. First, it doesn’t mandate anything that is already being done; employee and tenant background checking is routine (for all the good that does, as shown in this case). Second, what good is the mandatory log? Was such a log needed to find the suspect in Miya’s case? Third, what if someone copies the issued key without the landlord’s knowledge?
This law is just another example of political grandstanding in the wake of a tragic event, written solely to give the false impression of prevention, concern, and accomplishment.
Dustin
You could say the same thing about the registry. If any of us really wanted to offend, a registry will not stop that. And look at how many of us have gone over 2 or 3 decades without a new offense.
What it does do, is divide neighbors into hating anyone living at our homes, even the ones who did nothing. Our kids and grand kids get beat up because they are associated with a monster.
I have been saying the same thing about the registry for years. It’s another, maybe the most prominent, example of a useless law named for a crime victim that would have made no difference in the crime that prompted it, had it been in effect at the time.
Typical grandstanding by politicians. The man who killed Miya had 1 previous allegation of inappropriate behavior towards a tenant. However, police dropped the case for lack of evidence. Therefore, a background check before hiring him would have shown absolutely nothing. I’m sure that the Governor’s biggest disappointment was that the killer was NOT one of those so-called “dangerous” registered sex offenders.