HB 385 – Safe Exchange of Minor Children.
I had the opportunity to discuss the new law, which became effective July 1, 2024, with Univision Orlando Journalist Daniela Buitrago.
HB 385, named the “Cassie Carli Law,” passed through the Florida Senate and House nearly unanimously and was signed by Governor DeSantis. The law is named after Cassie Carli, a 37-year-old Florida mother who disappeared in 2022 after a custody exchange of her daughter in a restaurant parking lot. Her body was found days later in Alabama, and the child’s father is now facing charges.
The new law aims to mitigate the dangers associated with custody exchanges. It allows the court to require the parents to conduct the exchange at a neutral safe exchange location or a location authorized by a supervised visitation program if the court finds a risk or an imminent threat of harm to one party or the child during the exchange of the child.
Under the new law, every Sheriff’s Office in Florida must designate at least one parking lot at the sheriff’s office, or a substation thereof, as a neutral safe exchange location.
Each parking lot must have a purple light or a sign on the premises to clearly identify the designated area as a neutral, safe exchange location.
The neutral safe exchange location must:
1. Be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week;
2. Provide adequate lighting and an external video surveillance system
that records continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; and
3. Provide at least one camera that is fixed on the parking lot, is able to
record the area in the vicinity of the purple light or sign during both day and
night, records images that clearly and accurately display the time and date,
and retains video surveillance recordings or images for at least 45 days.
Another provision requires petitions for protective orders to include a request for a safe- exchange location.
For Univision News segment:
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