Traffic crimes highlight nearly 30 new Florida laws. The list, what each one means

Nearly 30 new Florida laws are going into effect on Oct. 1.

That’s a big drop from the more than 150 new laws that started July 1, but there are some significant ones here.

Many enhance penalty for traffic violations, privacy crimes and crimes against children, such as increased penalties for fleeing or impersonating an officer, DUI and BUI laws, vehicular and vessel homicide, abandoning a restrained dog in the face of a hurricane, tampering with court officials, spying on people with drones, luring children into or out of a building for illicit purposes, and sexual cyberharassment.

There are also new crimes against human trafficking of children or mentally incapacitated people and installing a tracking device without permission, and a deepfake pornography loophole has been closed.

Juries will also have more aggravating factors to consider when deciding a capital case, and landlords, mobile park owners and condo developers will have to provide information on flood risks and previous flooding of the property.

Here’s what starts Oct. 1. The list does not include any regional or individual relief bills.

HB 113: Fleeing or Attempting to Elude a Law Enforcement Officer

• What it does: Increases penalties for people who speed or drive recklessly while flee from law enforcement.

  • Also removes the requirement for law enforcement patrol vehicles to prominently display “insignia and other jurisdictional markings,” although “agency jurisdictional markings” are still required

• What it means for you:

  • If you’ve been ordered to stop and you flee anyway, it’s a third-degree felony, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and/or up to 5 years in prison

  • If you flee at high speeds or drive with a “wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property,” it’s a second-degree felony, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and/or up to 15 years in prison

  • If you flee at high speeds or drive recklessly and injure someone or cause damage to someone’s property, it’s called aggravated fleeing or eluding. That’s also a second-degree felony, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and/or up to 15 years in prison

  • If you flee at high speeds or recklessly and cause serious bodily injury or death to another person, it’s a first-degree felony, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000-$15,000 and/or jail time of up to 30 years or more, depending on the case, with a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in jail

  • Second offense means subsequent sentence points are multiplied by 1.5

SB 150: Abandoning Restrained Dogs During Natural Disasters (Trooper’s Law)

• What it does: Makes restraining and abandoning pets during a natural disaster a third-degree felony. The bill was named after Trooper, a beloved bull terrier that went viral in 2024 after a Florida state trooper rescued it from where it had been left on the side of Interstate 75 as a category 4 Hurricane Milton approached Florida.

• What it means for you: Anyone who restrains a dog outside during a natual disaster and then abandons the dog may be charged with a third-degree felony punishable by jail time of up to 5 years and/or a fine of up to $10,000.

SB 168: Mental Health (Tristan Murphy Act)

• What it does: Establishes a model process for local governments to divert mentally ill inmates from jail to treatment. Named the Tristan Murphy Act after a 37-year-old inmate with schizophrenia who killed himself with a chainsaw in 2021 while on a prison work detail. Also:

  • Provides law enforcement officers with crisis intervention team training

  • Establishes the Florida Behavioral Health Care Data Repository to collect and analyze existing statewide data related to behavioral health care in the state

• What it means for you: Inmates with a mental illness, intellectual disability, or autism must be evaluated and provided services in a community setting instead of incarceration, when feasible.

HB 253: Offenses Involving Motor Vehicles

• What it does: Increases penalties for anyone impersonating a law enforcement officer using vehicle lights, or anyone knowingly trying to obscure identification of a vehicle.

• What it means for you:

  • Anyone driving a vehicle displaying prohibited lights (red, red and white, or blue) who stops or attempts to stop someone else now faces third-degree felony charges, up from the previous first-degree misdemeanor

  • Knowingly altering a vehicle registration certificate, license plate, or specified sticker, or knowingly covering or interfering with the legibility of a license plate is a second-degree misdemeanor, up from a noncriminal traffic infraction

  • Buying or possessing a “license plate obscuring device” is a second-degree misdemeanor

  • Manufacturing, selling, offering to sell or otherwise distributing a “license plate obscuring device” is first-degree misdemeanor

  • Using a “license plate obscuring device” to assist in committing a crime or escaping from or avoiding detection or arrest in connection with such crime is a third degree felony

HB 437: Tampering with an Electronic Monitoring Device

• What it does: Previously, tampering with a court-ordered electronic monitoring device or asking someone else to do so was a third-degree felony. Under this bill, the penalty depends on how bad the initial crime was.

• What it means for you:

  • Third degree felony, if the person with the device is charged with or serving a sentence for a misdemeanor or a third degree felony

  • Second degree felony, if the person with the device is charged with or serving a sentence for a second degree felony

  • First degree felony, if the person who must wear or use the electronic monitoring device is charged with or serving a sentence for a first degree felony punishable by a term of years not exceeding life, a life felony, or a capital felony

  • A minor under 18 years of age who tampers with an electronic monitoring device would still be charged with a third-degree felony, regardless of the underlying offense

  • A person on pretrial release who tampers with a device or asks someone else to do so will have that release revoked by the court, whuch may then set a new bond with conditions of release

HB 479: Leaving the Scene of a Crash Involving Only Damage to Vehicle or Property

• What it does: A driver convicted for leaving the scene of a crash that resulted in damage can be ordered to make restitution to the owner of the property.

• What it means for you: Adds the possibility of restitution on top of any charges resulting from leaving the scene of a crash that caused damage.

HB 687: Driving and Boating Offenses (Trenton’s Law)

• What it does: Increases penalties for vehicular and vessel homicide, DUI and BUI laws. It was named after Trenton Stewart, a Stetson University student who was killed in Jacksonville by a man who had already served a 10-year sentence for a previous vehicular homicide. The bill:

  • Increases the penalty for a second or subsequent conviction for DUI manslaughter, BUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide, or vessel homicide from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony

  • Makes it a second-degree misdemeanor the first time someone refuses to submit to a lawful breath or urine test subsequent to a DUI arrest (previously that was only for second or subsequent refusals)

• What it means for you: Stricter laws for operating a motor vehicle or boat, refusing to submit to a breath or urine test if arrested for any offense committed while under the influence the first time is now a crime

HB 693: Aggravating Factors for Capital Felonies

• What it does: Adds more aggravating factors for a Florida jury to consider when deliberating over the conviction and potential sentence of death or life in prison for someone accused of a capital crime.

• What it means for you: Juries may now consider whether a victim was gathered with one or more persons for a school activity, religious activity, or public government meeting.

HB 703: Utility Relocation

• What it does: Requires communications providers to relocate facilities upon notice from county or municipal authorities that it’s in a public right-of-way.

  • Also requires the Department of Transportation to pay for part of it

  • Creates a grant program for providers to seek reimbursement

  • Moves $50 million of certain state communications services tax proceeds to the grant program

• What it means for you: Tax dollars will go to help cover costs when a communications provider is required to move a facility located in a public right-of-way.

HB 757: Sexual Images

• What it does: Creates strict penalties for promoting “lewd and lascivious images” (sexual pictures of a child less than 16 years old) and criminalizes nonconsensual deepfake pornography:

  • Possessing such an image with the intent to promote it is a second-degree felony

  • Knowingly soliciting, possessing or intentionally viewing such an image is a third-degree felony (with a carve-out for law enforcement officers who are investigating child sexual abuse material)

  • Creating, possessing or soliciting an altered sexual depiction without consent of the person depicted (deepfake pornography) is now a third-degree felony

• What it means for you: A loophole in Florida law concerning the creation of deepfakes has been closed. Anyone portayed in a sexual deepfake without consent may sue for injunctive relief, monetary damages of at least $10,000, and reasonable attorney fees and costs.

HB 777: Offenses Involving Children

• What it does: Changes the law against luring children into a building for illicit purposes to include children under the age of 14. Current law stops at 12.

• What it means for you: Harsher penalties for anyone luring children. The bill:

  • Increases the penalty from a third-degree felony to second-degree

  • Adds luring out of a building to the crime as well as luring into one

  • Ignorance of a victim’s age, even if it was misrepresented, is no longer permitted as a defense

SB 948: Flood Disclosures

• What it does: Requires residential landlords, mobile park owners and condo developers to give prospective tenants information about flood risks and past flooding of the property. Also expands the information that must be provided.

• What it means for you: When you enter talks to rent, or buy into a condo, you must be told about potential flood risks and any flood damage that has already occurred, along with whether the seller has received any assistance from any source (not just federal) for flood damage to the property.

HB 989: Licensure of Family Foster Homes

• What it does: Eases the red tape for licenses for family foster homes that relocate.

• What it means for you: A family foster home in good standing in the state may receive priority review and expedited background checks if it relocates within the state, where previously the person had to start over with a new license application

HB 1049: Tampering with, Harassing or Retaliating Against Court Officials

• What it does: Creates harsher penalities for anyone tampering with, harassing, or retaliating against court officials by expanding an existing law that protects jurors.

  • Tampering includes: Intimidation or physical force, threats, misleading conduct or bribes

  • Harassment includes: Intentionally hindering, delaying, or dissuading a court official from attending an official proceeding, rendering a fair verdict or following the rules set forth by the judge

  • Retailatory conduct includes: Knowingly engages in any conduct that threatens to cause bodily injury to another person, or damaging or threatening to damage the person’s property

• What it means for you: More protection for court officials, the definition of which is now greatly expanded to include any judge, justice, general magistrate, special magistrate, grand juror, petit juror, clerk of the court, deputy clerk of the court, judicial assistant, administrative assistant, attorney, child support enforcement hearing officer, bailiff, or court deputy.

SB 1080: Local Government Land Regulation

• What it does: Forces local governments to expedite the review and approval of development permit and order applications.

• What it means for you: Local governments will be required to:

  • Specify the minimum information required for certain zoning applications

  • Process development permit or order applications within certain timeframes, with financial penalties for delays

  • Hold as many public hearings or quasi-judicial hearings as necessary each month as necessary to avoid delays

HB 1121: Unmanned Aircraft and Unmanned Aircraft Systems

• What it does: Makes several changes relating to drones and unmanned aircraft systems, including:

  • Increasing the criminal penalty if a person operates a drone over or near a critical infrastructure facility

  • Increasing the criminal penalty if a person’s drone has an attached weapon or firearm

  • Banning anyone from owning or operating a drone carrying either a real or fake weapon of mass destruction

  • Authorizing law enforcement to use drones around a crowd of 50 people or more, or to provide security to elected officials

  • Making it a crime to use a drone to spy on a person or private property, with more penalties if the operator intentionally distributes what they record

• What it means for you: Stricter limitations on drone use, stronger penalties for invasion of privacy.

SB 1168: Installation or use of Tracking Devices or Applications

• What it does: Makes it a crime to install a tracking device or application on someone’s property without permission or to use one to track a person’s location or movement.

• What it means for you: Anyone trying to track you without permission faces a third-degree felony. If they do so to commit a dangerous crime, it’s a second-degree felony.

SB 1198: Fraudulent Use of Gift Cards

• What it does: Makes it a crime to steal gift cards, alter or tamper with a gift card or its packaging, or attempt to scam someone out of their gift cards.

• What it means for you:

  • Third-degree felony if the person has been convicted for it before or the value is over $750

HB 1351: Registration of Sexual Predators and Sexual Offenders

• What it does: Revises reporting requirements for sexual offenders and predators.

  • Requires sexual offenders and predators to report their occupation, business name, employment address, and employment phone number

  • Requires sexual offenders and predators to report in-state travel residences within 48 hours either online through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)’s online system or in person with the sheriff’s office, removes a requirement to report it to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

  • Requires local law enforcement agencies to verify addresses of sexual offenders at least one time per calendar year and sexual predators four times per calendar year

  • Clarifies “permanent residence”

• What it means for you: Tighter reporting for sexual predators and offenders.

SB 1386: Assault or Battery on a Utility Worker

• What it does: Adds utility workers to the list of occupations specifically protected from assault or battery with harsher penalties, if the utility worker is clearly identified and working on critical infrastructure.

• What it means for you: If you’re a utility worker, possibly a deterrent for someone thinking about attacking you.

HB 1451: Sexual Cyberharassment

• What it does: Enhances penalties for sexual cyberharassment, removes some loopholes in the law.

• What it means for you:

  • Sexual cyberharassment is now a third-degree felony instead of a first-degree misdemeanor if done for profit, second or subsequent acts are second-degree felonies

  • The intent of the offender no longer a factor

  • Sexual cyberharassment no longer requires a sexually explicit image that contains personal information about the victim to be published or distributed without legitimate purpose

  • Sexual cyberharassment no longer requires personal information of the victim to be in the image itself if that information is made available at the same time where a person viewing the image could easily connect them

  • The definition of “sexually explicit image” broadened to include images of bodily sexual secretions

  • Victims of sexual cyberharassment may sue for punitive damages

  • The statute of limitations extended to five years after it happens or within three years after the date the victim discovers it, whichever is later, for a misdemeanor. For a felony, it’s seven years after the crime is committed or within three years of discovery, whichever is later.

HB 1455: Sexual Offenses by Persons Previously Convicted of Sexual Offenses

• What it does: Requires a mandatory minimum sentence for sexual predators or offenders if they are convicted of a sex crime again, blocks all forms of early release apart from pardons, clemency or medical release.

• What it means for you: Minimum mandatory sentences are now:

  • 10 years

    • Lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim under 16 years of age

    • Lewd or lascivious molestation of an elderly or disabled person

    • Possession or transmission of child sexual abuse material

    • Online solicitation of a minor, traveling to meet a minor, or prohibited computer usage

  • 15 years

    • Possession with the intent to promote any form of child sexual abuse material

  • 20 years

    • Use of a child in a sexual performance

    • Promoting a sexual performance by a child

SB 1804: Capital Human Trafficking of Vulnerable Persons for Sexual Exploitation

• What it does: Creates new crime of Capital Human Trafficking of Vulnerable Persons for Sexual Exploitation for adult who knowingly initiates, organizes, plans, finances, directs, manages, or supervises the sexual trafficking of a child under 12 or a person who is mentally defective or mentally incapacitated.

• What it means for you: The crime is a capital felony, meaning the possibility of life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

Exemptions from public records

Also on Oct. 1, some extensions for exemptions from public records requirements go into effect. Florida has a robust Public Records Act that makes most state, county and municipal records open to the public, but some exceptions must be extended periodically to prevent them from being repealed. The specific ones being extended this time are:

• SB 7000: Site-specific location information for endangered and threatened species collected by state agencies

• HB 7003: Specified sensitive business information provided to and held by the Office of Financial Regulation to evaluate applications for the Financial Technology Sandbox

• SB 7004: Property photographs and personal identifying information of applicants or participants in presidentially declared disaster-related federal, state, or local housing assistance programs

• SB 7010: Personal financial and health information of people seeking insurance, personnel and payroll records of the insurer (except for executives), comsumer claim fields and other sensitive information

• SB 7018: Information that can be used to identify a minor who is petitioning for a judicial waiver of parental consent under the Parental Notice of and Consent for Abortion Act

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: New Florida laws go into effect October 1. What to know