Jim Rosica
State lawmakers filed bills Wednesday that would create exemptions to state public records law, ranging from topics involving substance abuse to cell-phone tracking.
State Sen. Joe Abruzzo, a Boynton Beach Democrat, filed a bill (SB 762) that would shield the names of people involuntarily committed for substance abuse treatment.
“The personal health of an individual and his or her alleged impairment by substance abuse are intensely private matters,” he said in the bill. Releasing the identities of those getting help “could cause unwarranted damage to (their) reputation of an individual.”
Further, “the knowledge that sensitive personal information is subject to disclosure could have a chilling effect on the willingness of individuals to seek substance abuse treatment services,” the bill said.
Abruzzo also filed a bill (SB 752) to protect the identities of employees of state agencies’ inspector general offices and their immediate family members.
The exemption would apply even after those employees leave their state jobs.
The bill would guard against “physical and emotional harm from disgruntled individuals who may react inappropriately to investigations, audits, and other actions” carried out by inspector general workers.
“The risk continues after such personnel leave employment (because) a disgruntled individual may wait to commit an act of revenge,” it said.
State Sen. Garrett Richter, a Naples Republican, submitted legislation (SB 754) to create an exemption for any “criminal or civil intelligence or investigative information” held by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The department, headed by Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, has an Agricultural Law Enforcement section that investigates “consumer fraud, criminal and civil violations occurring within state forests or any crimes involving agriculture,” its website says.
“Without the exemption, the department will be unable to obtain information that could assist it in pursuing violations of law under its jurisdiction,” the bill said. “Furthermore, the exemption is necessary to enable the department to participate in joint or multiagency investigations.”
Still another bill doesn’t involve the public record law but does touch on privacy concerns.
State Rep. Cary Pigman, an Avon Park Republican, filed a bill (HB 569) to require mobile phone service providers and others to “furnish call location information for the user of a telecommunications device on the service’s network to (a) law enforcement agency … as appropriate.”
Such a request “must be accompanied by a sworn written statement … providing facts that support the agency’s probable cause to believe that disclosure without delay is required.”
After 48 hours, law enforcement then “must request a court order determining whether it (in fact) had probable cause.”
