Senate panel sends bill strengthening protections, penalties against domestic violence to floor

Legislation bolstering Florida’s domestic violence laws by increasing penalties for repeat offenders, expanding electronic monitoring requirements, and enhancing protections and assistance for victims is now two votes from becoming law.

A Senate version of the proposal (SB 682) by Miami Republican Sen. Alexis Calatayud just cleared its final Committee stop with uniform support. Its House companion (HB 277) did the same last week.

Both bills now await floor votes and require work to bring their language into accord with one another.

SB 682, if passed, would revise multiple Florida statutes to strengthen enforcement and victim protections in domestic violence cases. It would establish enhanced criminal penalties for individuals convicted of a second or subsequent domestic violence offense, allowing courts to elevate misdemeanor and felony charges to higher penalty levels when a prior conviction exists.

The measure would also authorize and, in certain circumstances, require courts to impose electronic monitoring on offenders placed on probation or subject to protective injunctions, particularly when the court determines the offender poses a credible threat to the victim or has previously violated a protective order.

Individuals ordered to electronic monitoring would generally be responsible for paying for the service.

The bill would update procedures related to domestic violence injunctions, expand factors Judges may consider when determining whether someone faces imminent danger and require certain injunctions to be entered into a statewide verification system maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Further, SB 682 would increase the amount of relocation assistance available to domestic violence victims — from $1,500 to $2,500 per claim and from $3,000 to $5,000 over the victim’s lifetime — and make related conforming changes in state law.

SB 682 and HB 277, sponsored by Lake Worth Beach Democratic Rep. Debra Tendrich and Placida Republican Rep. Danny Nix, are largely similar. But there is one notable difference that needs to be addressed before the Legislature ultimately passes either measure.

The Senate bill would authorize, and in some cases require, electronic monitoring statewide in domestic violence cases and protective injunction violations. The House bill, meanwhile, envisions a two-year electronic monitoring pilot program in Pinellas County as a way to test the initiative for statewide implementation.

Every year in Florida, nearly 107,000 cases of domestic violence are reported, Department of Children and Families data shows. And according to the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness, 75% of domestic violence-related homicides occur after separation, meaning victims are most at risk of severe harm after they leave their abuser.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, meanwhile, estimates that 38% of Florida women and 29% of Florida men experience intimate-partner violence in their lifetimes — among the highest rates in the country.

Lawmakers this year are also close to passing another bipartisan couplet of bills (SB 298, HB 269) by Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman of Boca Raton and Republican Reps. Peggy Gossett-Seidman of Highland Beach and Rachel Plakon of Lake Mary.

Those proposals, dubbed the “Helping Abuse Victims Escape Now (HAVEN) Act,” would expand confidentiality protections for dating violence victims and require a study on creating a specialized 911 alert system to more quickly, safely and discreetly enable domestic violence victims to seek police help.

They too await floor votes in their respective chambers after receiving broad support during the Committee process.