Florida Governor Scott Signs Legislation for the Safety of Floridians

August 08, 2013

Tallahassee, Fla. (August 7, 2013) – The Florida Sheriffs Association (FSA) yesterday welcomed Governor Rick Scott to Marco Island for the FSA 2013 Annual Summer Conference. Governor Scott joined Sheriffs and legislators from across the state for a ceremonial bill signing before the conference banquet. During the 2013 Legislative Session, FSA’s legislative team worked vigorously with lawmakers to ensure the bills introduced in session are in the best interest of Florida citizens’ safety and Florida’s law-enforcement officers.  As a result, several important pieces of legislation championed by Florida Sheriffs were passed and signed into law by Governor Scott. The bills signed by the Governor include:

• House Bill 731 - creates a public records exemption for the names of spouses and children of law enforcement personnel. This will ensure protection for the family of law enforcement as the bill recognizes that officers deal with violent offenders on a daily basis, and many of these offenders may not only threaten the officer, but often threaten their families.
• House Bill 691 - creates a criminal penalty for a person to intentionally or knowingly possess, without authorization, personal identification information of another person.  This new law will serve to protect innocent victims from the burden experienced when one’s identity is stolen, while assisting law enforcement in the fight to curtail the ever growing problem of the criminal use of personal identities to commit fraud.
• Senate Bill 112 - creates criminal penalties for the filing of false liens against public officers, employees and private citizens. If a person is found guilty of filing a false lien, he or she may be prohibited from filing any other document in the public record affecting real or personal property without review from a judge.
• House Bill 953 - allows judges to approve warrants with an electronic signature, which allows law enforcement to electronically submit a warrant to the judge, instead of travelling to physically meet them in person. This is a critical first step in creating a fully electronic process for all warrants – bringing the process into the 21st century.

 

“We applaud Governor Scott for signing legislation that furthers public safety in Florida,” said Steve Casey, Executive Director of the Florida Sheriffs Association. “The Florida Sheriffs Association would like to thank all those who were involved in making the 2013 Florida Legislative Session a success for law enforcement. Everyone’s hard work and dedication made it possible to achieve our goal in passing legislation that will have a positive impact on our state and its law-abiding citizens.”

 

For more information about the legislative priorities of the Florida Sheriffs Association, please visit: [url=http://www.flsheriffs.org/legislative/]http://www.flsheriffs.org/legislative/[/url]


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