Get back: Florida Senate passes bill to criminalize getting too close to working policeUSA Today NetworkBy Douglas Soule2/15/2024The Florida Senate has a message for those who get too close to cops: Get out of their way or go to jail. Senators unanimously passed a bill Thursday that would create a first-degree misdemeanor for anyone who defies a warning and "impedes" police or other first responders when they’re at work. Despite questions previously raised by some Democratic lawmakers, asking whether it would prevent recording the police, the chamber approved the legislation (SB 184). “This bill ensures (first responders’) safety, but it also ensures that the public's safety is prioritized, and it ensures ... we are containing a situation to make sure it doesn’t evolve into something more catastrophic,” said Sen. Bryan Avila, R-Miami Springs, the bill's sponsor. A first-degree misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in prison. That punishment would come if someone, ignoring a warning issued by a first responder, approaches, harasses or remains within 14 feet of them at work with the intent to impede the first responders, harass or threaten them with physical harm. [Read More] |