DeSantis proposes getting rid of warrantless boater compliance stops on the water
Gov. Ron DeSantis Wednesday introduced a proposal to ban police officers from pulling over boaters for safety and compliance checks without having a warrant or probable cause.
The governor announced the proposal, which would require approval by the Florida Legislature, at the Miami International Boat Show, saying current law allows police officers to stop boaters “who are just out enjoying themselves when there’s no indication that anything is wrong.”
DeSantis was specifically talking about officers who board boats to check for things like life jackets, flares, fishing licenses and other mandatory safety equipment. During these inspections, officers often find other violations of the law, including boating under the influence of alcohol.
DeSantis said, however, that boaters have been unnecessarily been put through sobriety tests because of these stops and end up being sober in the end.
“People who are just out enjoying themselves when there’s no indication that anything is wrong, they should not be subjected to these intensive searches,” DeSantis said.
That’s precisely what happened to Todd White last May. He was boating with his wife, Cynthia, and their daughter when they were boarded by a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer off Little Torch Key in the Lower Florida Keys.
After a series of field sobriety tests on the boat, an FWC officer determined Todd White, 57, was impaired. He insisted he wasn’t and said he drank two beers hours before the stop. There were a total of four beer cans on the vessel — two from that day, and two from the day before, his wife, Cynthia, told the Herald.
On shore, White was breath tested for alcohol, which came back .000, according to his arrest report. The legal limit to be considered impaired is .08. Nevertheless, immediately after he took the test, he was booked and later charged with boating under the influence, which the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office dropped in August.
“For 78 days, I lost my freedom, my family lost our summer, and $5,000 in attorney fees and this young, disrespectful so-called officer was not even reprimanded for her actions in my false arrest,” Todd White said.
His wife, Cynthia, added that her husband being arrested in front of their teenage daughter “has left us traumatized and distraught. It also shattered our trust in the very people in uniform who are supposed to protect us.”
After the case was dropped, all files, including the arrest report, were removed from the Monroe County Clerk of the Court’s website.
‘Florida Freedom’ decal
In lieu of mandatory compliance checks, DeSantis is proposing people obtain a “Florida Freedom” decal for their boats at registration, which would “reassure law enforcement that the boater has conducted the due diligence of inspecting and maintaining proper boating safety requirements.”
It was not immediately clear if the act of fishing itself would be probable cause for a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission police officer to inspect a boater’s vessel. Current law states law enforcement officers “have the authority, without warrant, to board, inspect, and search any boat, fishing appliance, storage or processing plant, fishhouse, spongehouse, oysterhouse, or other warehouse, building, or vehicle engaged in transporting or storing any fish or fishery products.”
DeSantis added that his proposal would also preempt municipalities from banning boats fueled by gasoline or diesel from operating in local waters.
“We want to establish a right to boat initiative in the state of Florida by preempting local regulations that ban the sale or use of boats based on fuel sources,” DeSantis said.
“You don’t need to be driving an electric boat if you don’t want to. You have the ability to do gas, and we want to be able to preserve your freedom to be able to do that,” he said.
This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 10:36 AM.
