Florida Senate - 2025                                     SB 682
       
       
        
       By Senator Rodriguez
       
       
       
       
       
       40-01170A-25                                           2025682__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to the recording of protective
    3         investigations; amending s. 39.301, F.S.; requiring
    4         that certain interviews be audio and video recorded;
    5         providing exceptions; providing that a person charged
    6         with a certain criminal offense does not have standing
    7         to object to an investigator’s failure to record such
    8         an interview; providing that an investigator’s failure
    9         to record such an interview is not grounds for
   10         precluding certain statements from certain
   11         proceedings; providing an effective date.
   12          
   13  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   14  
   15         Section 1. Subsection (25) is added to section 39.301,
   16  Florida Statutes, to read:
   17         39.301 Initiation of protective investigations.—
   18         (25)(a) Any interview conducted pursuant to this section
   19  must be audio and video recorded except in the following
   20  circumstances:
   21         1. The recording equipment malfunctions, and the
   22  malfunction is not the result of a failure to maintain the
   23  equipment properly or to provide adequate supplies for the
   24  equipment.
   25         2. Due to circumstances that could not reasonably be
   26  foreseen by the investigator, he or she does not have the
   27  necessary recording equipment available.
   28         (b) A person who is charged with a criminal offense
   29  involving the abuse or neglect of a child does not have standing
   30  to object to an investigator’s failure to comply with paragraph
   31  (a). An investigator’s failure to comply with paragraph (a) is
   32  not grounds for precluding any statements made during an
   33  interview which are otherwise admissible in a legal proceeding,
   34  including a criminal or dependency proceeding.
   35         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.