No. CS/SB 504
Filed under Environment & Water.
Code Inspector Body Cameras; Requiring a governmental entity that permits its code inspectors to wear body cameras to establish certain policies and procedures; requiring such governmental entity to ensure that certain training occurs, to retain certain data in accordance with public records laws, and to perform a periodic review of actual body camera practices; providing that certain provisions relating to the interception of wire, electronic, and oral communications do not apply to body camera recordings made by code inspectors, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDRecordings that code inspectors make with body cameras are exempt from Florida's wiretapping law, so an inspector can record an encounter, including inside a home during an inspection, without the other person's consent.
A local government that allows its code inspectors to wear body cameras must adopt written policies on their use, and can never bar an inspector from recording an on-duty encounter with the public.
Every employee who wears, handles, or releases body camera footage must be trained on the entity's policies, and the entity must periodically check whether actual practice matches those written rules.
AIRecordings made by a code inspector's body camera are excluded from Florida's chapter on interception of communications entirely, not merely its rules on interception specifically, so the ordinary requirement that all parties consent to being recorded does not apply to these recordings.
AIWhatever other limits a governmental entity places on when code inspectors may use body cameras, it cannot prevent an inspector from recording an on-duty encounter with a member of the public.
AIA governmental entity that permits code inspectors to wear body cameras must adopt written policies covering proper use, maintenance, and storage of the cameras and the data they record, plus any limits on which inspectors may wear them or when.
AIEvery employee who wears, uses, maintains, or stores body cameras, and everyone who uses, maintains, stores, or releases the recorded data, must be trained in the governmental entity's body camera policies and procedures.
AIBeyond retaining footage under the public-records retention schedule, the entity must periodically review its actual body camera practices to confirm real-world use matches its written policies and procedures.