Aerial view of downtown Tallahassee, Florida and the State Capitol. By felixmizioznikov via iStock for WMNF.
©2024 The News Service of Florida
The Florida House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Thursday that would allow courts to require parents who share custody of their children to use “secure exchange locations” at county sheriff's offices.
Under the measure (HB 385), courts could order parents to exchange their children between locations as part of so-called parenting plans.
Such orders could be made “if the court determines that there is a risk or imminent risk of harm to either party or the child during the exchange between the parents.”
Sheriffs would be required to designate at least one parking space in the sheriff's offices or substations to serve as an exchange location.
Such locations would have to be marked by purple lights or signs to “clearly identify” the areas, be adequately lit and monitored by video surveillance systems, and be accessible 24 hours a day.
The bill is called the “Cassie Carli” law, after a mother who disappeared after meeting the father of her child in northwest Florida to conduct a timeshare swap.
Carli was later found dead in Alabama.
Rep. Joel Rudman, a Navarre Republican who sponsored the bill, said passage of the measure could “save hundreds of lives.”
An identical Senate bill (SB 580) is awaiting a hearing in the Rules Committee.
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