In-state Florida travel for Florida registrants: My secret mission to attend a funeral in enemy territory
From the 50 State Visitor Guide :
Fla. Stat. 2019; Fla. Stat. §§775.21, 775.215; Fla. Stat. §§943.043 through 943.0435; Fla. Stat. §§944.606 through 944.607; Fla. Stat. §947.1405, §985.481
AWA Compliant
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
“Residence” means either (1) a place where one spends 3 or more consecutive days, (2) a place where one spends 3 or more aggregate days in a calendar year, or (3) a county in which one is present for 3 or more aggregate days in a calendar year. In all cases, 3rd day triggers registry obligation.
Registrants must appear to register with law enforcement w/in 48 hours of establishing a residence, and must appear to provide any updates within 48 hours.
Transient registrants update every 30 days.
NOTE: "Day" will now be defined in Florida's SOR law to mean "any part of a day" except that your day of arrival doesn't count. Updated 3/2024.
Registrants must also appear to register with the driver’s license office of the FL DMV within 48 hours of registration to obtain a driver’s license or ID card labeled either “SEXUAL PREDATOR” or “943.0435, F.S.”
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
Residence restriction: May not reside within 1,000 ft. of school, child care facility, park, or playground under certain circumstances. §775.215. NOTE: Individual cities and counties often have additional more burdensome requirements upwards of 3000 feet.
Presence restriction: Registrants with conviction involving a minor cannot be within 300 feet “of place where children are congregating,” and face restrictions on ability to be present in schools and parks. NOTE: Individual cities and counties often have additional more burdensome requirements. Fla. Stat. §856.022
Visiting Registrants once placed on state’s registry ARE NOT REMOVED.
Duration & updates:
Lifetime. Petition: 25 years. “Predators” and certain others update quarterly. All others update every 6 months
Florida’s restrictions on registrants are particularly onerous and should be carefully consulted before visiting the state.
Every major national or state registrant advocacy group – including NARSOL, ACSOL, Florida Action Committee (FAC) – strongly recommends that you avoid visiting Florida if at all possible. To this I add my own voice. Florida’s registry is lifetime for all offenses, no matter how minor. Florida has no tiered registry – only “sex offenders” and “sexual predators.” Furthermore, Florida is one of about 15 states where there is no procedure for removal from the registry upon returning to your home state.
Because of that, of the about 75,000 Florida registrants less than 30,000 actually live in Florida (not counting incarcerated registrants)! All the rest – which is to say the majority of Florida registrants – DO NOT actually live in Florida. Because I recently moved my primary residence to Iowa, I am now included in that number.
However … as with any other state, once you are registered here the deed is done and you are “free” to come and go without suffering and further consequences – as long as you are careful not to run afoul of any of Florida’s many cruel and clearly unconstitutional registration laws. This is the story of how I snuck into one county’s infamous “exclusion zones” to attend a funeral.
On January 28, 2024 the scourge of gun violence came to Brevard County, Florida in a mass murder of the kind that has become so common in America that this one made nary a blip on anybody’s radar screen. The previous evening a retired Catholic priest allowed a troubled young man whom he had been counseling for several years to stay overnight at his house.
The next morning that troubled young man murdered his priest, and the priest’s sister, in a gruesome and senseless shooting. He then stole the priest’s car, drove it to his own grandfather’s birthday party and shot him to death. Some other party-goers were injured in that incident. When the police showed up more shooting broke out, at least one officer was wounded and the troubled young man was shot to death. The police noticed that the car was stolen and traced it back to the priest, went to his house and found the two bodies.
It so happens that retired Catholic priest was my family’s parish priest for the entire time we raised our kids in Orlando. I myself am not religious but my (now ex-) wife and children are and they were all exceptionally close to their priest and regarded him as a true mentor. I also held him in high regard.
So from the moment I learned of his death it was clear that I and my family would be attending a funeral in Brevard County. A big deal funeral at the largest Catholic church in the county, located on a giant campus along with a K-12 Catholic school, daycare and after-school care center, etc. In other words, the usual list of places that, in Brevard County, I am not even allowed to “be present” within 1000 feet of.
My attendance at this funeral was mandatory. More than that, I truly wanted to go and honor the life of a man I held in high esteem. But doing so meant violating Brevard County’s draconian, clearly unconstitutional and frankly un-Christian “presence” rules.
Question: Should I tell my family – or anybody else – about this problem ahead of time?
Answer: No. My family was under enough stress as it was. I didn’t want to burden them with my problem. They might even urge me not to go, a sentiment which I was in no mood to hear.
I also knew I was under no obligation to report this foray into enemy territory to my local sheriff’s department in Orlando. The trip was too brief to require "reporting travel." The funeral was less than an hour’s drive from my house. I’d be in and out of Brevard County in about three hours – even with a stop for lunch at a BBQ restaurant almost across the street from the Catholic school campus which meant I wasn’t allowed to be “present” there either. I certainly wouldn’t be there overnight.
The biggest risk was that something might happen that could expose me to arrest while I was in the wrong place at the right time. I judged that risk to be small, so on the day of the funeral I just got in my car and went. My foray into enemy territory must’ve gone well because here I am writing about it.
When I am asked to speak on domestic travel or set up my travel information table at a conference or event, I meet registered people who say some version of “The entire travel reporting system is a violation of my rights and I refuse to cooperate with it. I travel when I want, where I want.” I respond by saying I agree completely with that sentiment but my job is to advise you how to travel safely.
To all of you with whom I have had this exchange … you’ll be happy to know that when push came to shove I followed your way, not mine. If Brevard County wants to arrest me for the crime of attending the funeral of my family’s pastor who was murdered by my state’s abject failure to keep guns out of the hands of a troubled young man, let them come. I will humiliate them in court.
