By Gordon Byrd
May 13, 2021
TALLAHASSEE A sheriff from the Tampa Bay area and a Miami police oversight panel may challenge a ruling that could keep secret the names of officers who use deadly force.
A three judge panel at the 1st District Appeals Court ruled last month that two Tallahassee police officers can claim a right to privacy as crime victims under Marsy s Law, because they were threatened with a deadly weapon before using force.
Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri and the Miami Civilian Investigative Panel plan to file briefs of their own against the decision, when the case goes to the State Supreme Court. Opponents of the ruling say it could undermine sunshine laws and efforts by the community to hold police accountable through public records.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri speaking at a state panel
TALLAHASSEE - A prominent sheriff and a Miami police oversight panel are backing a challenge to an appeals-court ruling that could help shield the identities of law-enforcement officers involved in use-of-force incidents.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri and the Miami Civilian Investigative Panel this week said they plan to file friend-of-the-court briefs at the Florida Supreme Court in a dispute about whether a 2018 constitutional amendment known as “Marsy’s Law” can prevent the release of officers’ names.
Marsy’s Law bolstered victims’ rights, and a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled last month that privacy protections in the constitutional amendment can apply to two Tallahassee police officers. Those officers argued they were victims because they were threatened in incidents that resulted in use of force.
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Pinellas Sheriff Gualtieri backs challenge to Marsyâs Law ruling
An appeals court ruling could help shield the identities of law enforcement officers who kill people. Gualtieri says the names should be public.
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Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, shown in this photo from a crime scene in 2020, opposes shielding the names of officers involved in use-of-force incidents from the public. [ DIRK SHADD | Times ]
By Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
Published 2 hours ago
Updated 2 hours ago
TALLAHASSEE - A prominent sheriff and a Miami police oversight panel are backing a challenge to an appeals-court ruling that could help shield the identities of law-enforcement officers involved in use-of-force incidents.
A document filed Wednesday by Gualtieri’s attorneys said a police officer “who shoots and kills another is not a ‘victim’ of that shooting and cannot invoke Marsy’s Law to shroud his shooting in secrecy.”
Along with being sheriff of one of the state’s largest counties, Gualtieri has led a commission that probed the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County and is a past president of the Florida Sheriffs Association.
“That a use of force is justified does not shield the identity of the person using it from public view,” Gualtieri’s attorneys wrote in the document. “Here, the appeals court misconstrued the plain text of Marsy’s Law by expanding it to suppress the identity of a police officer who shot and killed another person.”