Florida Senate - 2018                                    SB 1096
       
       
        
       By Senator Simmons
       
       
       
       
       
       9-01209-18                                            20181096__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to victim assistance; amending s.
    3         960.001, F.S.; requiring a law enforcement agency to
    4         provide specified information to a victim for
    5         obtaining possession of his or her property located in
    6         a pawnshop; requiring the law enforcement agency to
    7         provide the victim with the name and location of the
    8         pawnshop under certain circumstances; providing
    9         applicability; providing an effective date.
   10  
   11  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   12  
   13         Section 1. Paragraph (h) of subsection (1) of section
   14  960.001, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   15         960.001 Guidelines for fair treatment of victims and
   16  witnesses in the criminal justice and juvenile justice systems.—
   17         (1) The Department of Legal Affairs, the state attorneys,
   18  the Department of Corrections, the Department of Juvenile
   19  Justice, the Florida Commission on Offender Review, the State
   20  Courts Administrator and circuit court administrators, the
   21  Department of Law Enforcement, and every sheriff’s department,
   22  police department, or other law enforcement agency as defined in
   23  s. 943.10(4) shall develop and implement guidelines for the use
   24  of their respective agencies, which guidelines are consistent
   25  with the purposes of this act and s. 16(b), Art. I of the State
   26  Constitution and are designed to implement s. 16(b), Art. I of
   27  the State Constitution and to achieve the following objectives:
   28         (h) Return of property to victim.—
   29         1. A law enforcement agency agencies and the state attorney
   30  shall promptly return a victim’s property held for evidentiary
   31  purposes unless there is a compelling law enforcement reason for
   32  retaining it. The trial or juvenile court exercising
   33  jurisdiction over the criminal or juvenile proceeding may enter
   34  appropriate orders to implement this subsection, including
   35  allowing photographs of the victim’s property to be used as
   36  evidence at the criminal trial or the juvenile proceeding in
   37  place of the victim’s property if no related substantial
   38  evidentiary issue related thereto is in dispute.
   39         2. Upon taking a stolen property report, a law enforcement
   40  agency shall give a victim instructions outlining the process
   41  for a replevin action and the procedures specified in ss. 538.08
   42  and 539.001(15) for obtaining possession of his or her property
   43  located in a pawnshop. If a law enforcement agency locates the
   44  property in the possession of a pawnbroker, it must promptly
   45  make reasonable efforts to provide the victim with the name and
   46  location of the pawnshop. This section does not relieve the law
   47  enforcement agency of the duty to place a 90-day hold on the
   48  property while awaiting court disposition.
   49         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.