Jesse Scheckner
For the second Legislative Session in a row, a bill that would ban most legal allowances for the millennia-old practice of citizen’s arrests in Florida is likely dead.
The bipartisan legislation (SB 812, HB 25) has yet to receive a single hearing during the 2023 Legislative Session. Now 41 days in, subcommittees are no longer meeting and bills that have yet to be introduced typically won’t be.
It’s unfortunate the bill isn’t being heard this year, particularly since another measure that could exacerbate the lethality of citizen’s arrests will soon go into effect, said Miami Gardens Democratic Rep. Christopher Benjamin.
Benjamin first introduced legislation to curb citizen’s arrests in January 2022, less than two months after a jury found three Georgia men guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in what the men described as an attempted citizen’s arrest. After that bill died without a hearing in the 2022 Legislative Session, Benjamin filed an updated version with support from Tallahassee Republican Sen. Corey Simon of Tallahassee.
“This should be the year for this bill, because this is the year that we’ve allowed more Floridians to carry firearms in public,” Benjamin told Florida Politics, referring to a measure Gov. Ron DeSantis signed this month eliminating the requirement for Floridians to obtain a license to carry a concealed gun.
“Without the message that we do not want Floridians to act as law enforcement,” he said, “we will potentially have more public violence, more public death and more public unrest, when there is no justice for those victimized by the bad actor whose story is taken as uncontradicted, because the dead cannot testify in their own defense.”
HB 25 and its identical Senate counterpart would have removed most legal allowances for citizen’s arrests in Florida, leaving law enforcement to professionals. Unlike its more restrictive predecessor, this year’s version of the proposed law would still have allowed citizens to detain someone who entered their home, vehicle or other transportation vessel.
“I made a number of improvements to accommodate concerns, but oftentimes we are at the mercy of a committee’s Chair and their appetite for certain legislation, regardless of how it is perceived by the public,” Benjamin said.
“This bill has evolved when legitimate concerns were raised. The Florida Sheriffs Association and Florida Police Benevolent Association have been neutral, and many law enforcement officials have privately said the bill just makes sense.”
Citizen’s arrest laws can be traced back to England in 1285, when King Edward I signed the Statute of Winchester permitting bystanders who witnessed crimes to pursue and hold suspects while awaiting the arrival of a constable or Sheriff. Their history in America, by and large, is steeped in the shame of racism.
Following the murder of Arbery that reignited debate over citizen’s arrests nationwide, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp repealed the law allowing it in his state, which came about through legislation principally drafted by U.S. Rep. Thomas Cobb, a proponent of slavery and a Civil War secessionist.
“This is a law that was used for White people to help catch escaping slaves,” American University law professor Ira P. Robbins, who wrote a paper on the issue, told the New York Times last year. “There is a close connection between citizen’s arrest laws in the South and lynching.”
Florida’s standard for citizen’s arrests is set forth in the July 1980 case McAnnis v. State, which centered on an arrest a Broward County police officer made in Miami-Dade County. In short, there must be clear communication and action on the part of the person making the citizen’s arrest, and the person being arrested must understand what is happening.
In the absence of a warrant, it is up to a court to decide whether a citizen’s arrest is valid. Common law in Florida permits citizen’s arrests in instances of felonies or breaches of the peace, including detaining drivers suspected of driving while intoxicated. Those allowances extend to non-police security guards, who have no special authority or powers.
Florida has been host to several dangerous instances in recent years in which someone has tried to make a citizen’s arrest without proper cause. According to Robins, citizen’s arrest laws are “scary” because they enable people who don’t understand the complexities of the law to engage in “vigilante injustice.”
It “gives cover for bad actors,” Benjamin said.
“And it’s typically minorities and women who are in danger of misdeeds under the guise of a citizen’s arrest, not to mention when we look at Georgia, almost every case of a citizen’s arrest was done under the threat of a gun,” he added. “We definitely don’t want those scenarios happening here in Florida, and it can be prevented.”
No common law exists allowing a private citizen to arrest someone for committing a misdemeanor that isn’t a breach of the peace.
HB 25 was the first bill Benjamin filed for the 2023 Session. It was Simon’s 11th.
One comment
Earl Pitts American
April 17, 2023 at 9:01 pm
Good evening America,
Basically if the leftists support anything its always bad for Florida. Same thing for this Citizens Arrest banning which leftists want. Yes its just that simple – if leftists want something – its bad.
Now Corey Simon is new so everybody just cut him a break already. I, Earl Pitts American, will meet with Corey and get him back on track the way Bobby Bowden used to do. Dont worry I, Earl Pitts American, got this.
Thank you America,
Earl Pitts American
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