The Florida Senate

570.073  Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, law enforcement officers.--

(1)  The commissioner may create an Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement under the supervision of a senior manager exempt under s. 110.205 in the Senior Management Service. The commissioner may designate law enforcement officers, as necessary, to enforce any criminal law or conduct any criminal investigation relating to any matter over which the department has jurisdiction or which occurs on property owned, managed, or occupied by the department. Those matters include laws relating to:

(a)  Domesticated animals, including livestock, poultry, aquaculture products, and other wild or domesticated animals or animal products.

(b)  Farms, farm equipment, livery tack, citrus or citrus products, or horticultural products.

(c)  Trespass, littering, forests, forest fires, and open burning.

(d)  Damage to or theft of forest products.

(e)  Enforcement of a marketing order.

(f)  Protection of consumers.

(g)  Civil traffic offenses provided for in chapters 316, 320, and 322, subject to the provisions of chapter 318, relating to any matter over which the department has jurisdiction or committed on property owned, managed, or occupied by the department.

(h)  The use of alcohol or drugs which occurs on property owned, managed, or occupied by the department.

(i)  Any emergency situation in which the life, limb, or property of any person is placed in immediate and serious danger.

(j)  Any crime incidental to or related to paragraphs (a) through (i).

(2)  Each law enforcement officer shall meet the qualifications of law enforcement officers under s. 943.13 and shall be certified as a law enforcement officer by the Department of Law Enforcement under the provisions of chapter 943. Upon certification, each law enforcement officer is subject to and shall have the same arrest and other authority provided for law enforcement officers generally in chapter 901 and jurisdiction as provided in subsection (1). Each officer shall also have arrest authority as provided for state law enforcement officers in s. 901.15(11).

(3)  All department law enforcement officers, upon certification under s. 943.1395, shall have the same right and authority to carry arms as do the sheriffs of this state.

(4)  Each department law enforcement officer shall be covered by a public employee's faithful-performance-of-duty bond, with a corporate surety authorized to transact insurance in this state, in the sum of $5,000, to be approved by the department, conditioned upon the faithful performance of duty and payable to the commissioner and the commissioner's successors in office.

(5)  Each law enforcement officer in the state who is certified pursuant to chapter 943 has the same authority as law enforcement officers designated in this section to enforce the laws of this state as described in subsection (1).

History.--s. 7, ch. 92-291; s. 5, ch. 93-169; s. 2, ch. 95-141.