Pro-police laws signed by DeSantis cast a shadow on Florida’s open government tradition | Opinion

The second week of April began with the moon casting a shadow on the sun. It ended on Friday with Gov. Ron DeSantis casting a shadow on Florida’s tradition of open government.

DeSantis, who has been commendably supportive of law enforcement, did so by signing into law Senate Bill 184 and House Bill 601 that may erode public trust and have a detrimental impact on the agencies the bills were intended to help.

The House bill essentially prevents cities and counties from having their own independent police review boards. Instead, probes of alleged police misconduct would be handled by each jurisdiction’s state attorney and by the agencies’ own internal affairs units, possibly subject to review by boards appointed, respectively, by county sheriffs and/or municipal police chiefs.

While some of Florida’s existing police review boards have included unreasonable critics of the police, and while their proceedings could duplicate other investigations, they at least provided the public with a window into the workings of their local law enforcement agencies.

Sometimes they even help to deflect criticism and defuse public unrest. The activities of the new version of such boards, if and when they are formed, will need to be scrutinized to see if they can achieve the same results.

SB 184 creates a 25-foot buffer between first responders when they are at work and spectators. It was undoubtedly well-motivated but arguably goes too far. While police and other first responders need space to do their work, often in chaotic and potentially dangerous situations, the bill’s wording is problematic.

As the First Amendment Foundation argued in a letter urging DeSantis to veto the bill, “SB 184 — ‘Impeding, Threatening, or Harassing First Responders’ — is unnecessary for law enforcement safety and… could give rise to discretionary enforcement and abuse by police officers to prevent civilians from exercising their rights under the First Amendment to record police conduct in public.”

Although the bill did not include an outright ban on filming first responders while they’re working, it gives them a worrisome degree of discretion that could enable them to order observers to stop recording, the Foundation argued.

Indeed, if a reporter or other individual who’s recording the scene of an accident, a fire, and/or an arrest is deemed to have deliberately caused “substantial emotional distress” for one or more of the first responders, that individual could be charged with harassment.

Noting that a federal judge had ruled that a similar law in Arizona was unconstitutional, the Foundation’s letter concluded by reminding DeSantis that “the right to record police activity is a protected form of newsgathering.”

The O.J. effect

The death of O.J. Simpson provided a timely reminder of why this is important. Observers who’d been present for Simpson’s trials for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman said they had no doubt that Simpson’s surprising acquittal was the jury’s payback for the 1992 acquittal of the LAPD cops who’d severely beaten Rodney King the previous year.

Caught on camera, the beating of King was an egregious example of police misconduct and arguably a reflection of the LAPD’s prevailing culture then. The cops’ acquittal by an all-white jury led to days of rioting.

In Los Angeles — as in Miami in 1980 after riots erupted following the acquittal of the officers involved in the fatal beating of Arthur McDuffie — the public’s concerns about police misconduct ultimately led to reforms, including those used during the screening, training and hiring of new officers.

This raw history provides a persuasive reminder of why Florida should avoid taking any further steps that block the public’s access to avenues of information that offer a fair degree of transparency and accountability in law enforcement.

Robert F. Sanchez, of Tallahassee, is a former member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. He writes for the Herald’s conservative opinion newsletter, Right to the Point. It’s weekly, and it’s free. To subscribe, go to miamiherald.com/righttothepoint.