Keep your eye on this case.
A U.S. District judge struck down a Florida law Friday which makes it a crime to publish the address and phone numbers of a law enforcement officer as a way to "...intimidate, hinder or interfere with their duties."
Judge Richard Smoak ruled the law hindered free speech and further stated publishing accurate information that could be obtained from various public records did not constitute a threat.
The ACLU represented a citizen who posted the address, cell phone number and age of the officer, who had investigated the poster for trespassing.
The posted information was drawn from public records, readily available from the Internet. (Which I imagine is apparently how state lawmakers get away with posting the addresses of registered sex offenders, with no regard to the privacy of their nonoffending family members).
My guess is this ruling has rippled a fair bit of concern through the law enforcement community, due to the addition of themselves and their family members to the collateral damage list of Florida's way too broad public records law.
Should this case move forward on appeal, perhaps a ruling for the officer could prove precedent-setting for all citizens impacted by public records law which appears in such obvious and direct conflict with the right to privacy, guaranteed by the state Constitution.
But until then, for those who live in Florida, kiss the quaint phrase "private citizen" good-bye. The details of your everyday lives are just a few keystrokes from total public exposure.
Had enough yet?
