Law Enforcement: Florida House Passes Watered Down "Rachel's Law" in Bid to Protect Informants from Dangerous Assignments
Inspired by the murder of Florida State University graduate Rachel Hoffman, 23, after Tallahassee police sent the small-time pot dealer out with $13,000 to buy cocaine and guns from people she didn't know, the Florida House of Representatives Monday passed a bill that would require police departments to protect confidential informants. But the measure was considerably weakened after law enforcement lobbyists protested it could weaken their ability to wage the drug war.
Rachel Hoffman
In its current form, the bill, HB 271, would require departments to have written policies on confidential informants and to train officers on those policies. It would also require departments to "consider" factors such as an informant's age and maturity, whether the informant is in drug treatment, and the risk of physical harm.
Hoffman's parents and the bill's sponsor, Rep. Peter Nehr (R-Tarpon Springs), wanted to bar police from using people in drug treatment as informants and from using nonviolent informants to try to entrap people with violent criminal histories. The original version of the bill would also have required police to tell potential snitches they had the right to talk to a lawyer before agreeing to work with police.
But law enforcement lobbyists, including the Florida Sheriffs Association, prevailed in watering down the bill. They told legislators any restrictions would discourage recruitment of snitches and deny them a valuable crime-fighting tool.
"Any one of these things would have saved Rachel's life," Margie Weiss, Rachel's mother, told the Pensacola News Journal after a committee meeting earlier this month where the bill was gutted.
"Rachel Hoffman's death was unnecessary and unneeded," said Nehr after the measure passed the House.
The measure as passed won't provide as much protection to informants as the original bill, but it at least serves notice to law enforcement that it needs to consider more than just making the next drug bust. It now goes to the state Senate.
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redditWindow Dressing...
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/01/2009 - 3:20pmthe proposed new law is "window dressing", for it has no teeth in it to sanction the incompetent or corrupt law enforcement agents involved. Who in the Hell polices the police?
Silly citizen
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/01/2009 - 3:35pmPolice don't like p o l i c i n g.
2 sided coin
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sat, 05/02/2009 - 7:34amWhy I feel what they did with Rachel is wrong here in Meigs county Ohio their little snitch {CI} has been turned loose for no less than 8 felonies and let to continue to deal so they can bust people leaving her home and now she has caused a traffic accident that has claimed 2 lives and the cover up is on she has not been charged and they found crack in the car and her system.So when do they draw the line on these corrupt cops that use people in their never ending and unwinnable war on drugs that involves the lives of innocent people.To verify what I say you can check docket. websol.com/meigs type in name hill and look under brandi to see a copy of the record of charges that have been dismissed
Seriously, she agreed to be
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 8:10pmSeriously, she agreed to be a snitch. She was given the option between serving time and working as a snitch. She chose to be a snitch. She chose to be there. She could have backed out before the sting happened. It is tragic that she lost her life, but she made the choice to be there. She made that choice because she made the choice to be stupid and break the law in the first place. She broke it, she was caught, and then she continued to break it. I am sorry, but she made a series of wrong decisions. They are her responsibility. The police did not force her into that situation, she chose it. People need to get over blaming everyone else for their own piss poor decisions. I am truly sorry for her family's loss, but do we make up new laws because someone's kid is shot by police while running into a bank with a gun? No, we say that its tragic and we feel pity for the family, but the kid made a terrible choice. Why should we make up new laws to protect people who choose to continue to make terrible choices? The fact is she broke the law repeatedly, under her own choice. Then she chose to be a snitch so as to try to save her own hide. Then she messed up in the sting. Did the cops botch their side, probably, but she made the choice to be there.
WTF
Comment posted by stormspotter73 on Fri, 05/01/2009 - 2:26pmI cannot believe what the Tallahassee Police Department is doing. What the hell were they thinking? How many more people have they used to do there dirty work? This practice has got to stop before more innocent people go down for something that is wrong to begin with the war on drugs.