HOW TO AVOID BEING BRANDED AS A CRIMINAL FOR LIFE AFTER A FLORIDA ARREST OR CRIMINAL CHARGE

 Clearwater Florida: The Rules are Different

A few years ago Florida spent millions of dollars to promote as its apt tourist slogan, "the rules are different here." For those who live in this sunshine paradise as well as the travelers who spend time at our beaches, bays, lakes, bike paths and rivers time spent here can be carefree and beautiful.

Yet that slogan also has deeper meaning in that Florida imprisons a greater portion of it's population than most any other state not in the deep south. Yes, without a doubt the rules are different in Florida. Its not unusual for Floridians and vacationers to find that their Florida dreams are ruined from criminal accusations. 

Florida is a state that harasses, arrests and incarcerates people for 'crimes' such as marijuana possession that would not even be illegal in many parts of the country. In fact in Florida it is still an illegal misdemeanor to co-habitate with someone who is not your wife or husband. 

Clearly, Florida prosecutors, sheriffs, deputies, officers and judges should prioritize crimes. They should use discretion with understanding and compassion. Technically criminal offenses of a nonviolent nature such as drug crimes, thefts, and trespass should be taken care of with a civil citation requiring a fine or community service for quick dismissal of the case without need of hiring a criminal defense lawyer. 

In some parts of the state such as Tallahassee experiments with civil citations program are being used effectively for victimless crimes such as petty theft. Having succeeded in not making criminals of large portions of the population the civil citation program should be promoted in every part of Florida rather than just the capital. But law enforcement and prosecutors prefer to make arrests so that they can justify their ever increasing budgets.

In Clearwater, Pinellas County, Florida alleged incidental bad behavior often results in an unnecessary arrest that forever brands the accused as a criminal even if the charges or dropped or the defendant is later found not guilty. For example, is it really reasonable to arrest someone for criminal mischief who is caught taking the air out of a friend's tire as a joke? Somehow police, prosecutors and judges have lost proportionality in arrests and sentencing. Until the criminal laws in Florida are changed a Clearwater criminal defense attorney often must be retained to bring some common sense to the prosecutors, the police and the judge.

FLORIDA FORGIVES FIRST TIME NONVIOLENT CRIMINAL OFFENSES WITH A NEW CIVIL CITATION PROGRAM

Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorneys are pleased that first time offenders may benefit from a new program being tested in Florida which would give nonviolent criminal offenders the opportunity to avoid an arrest record by abiding by the terms of a new civil citation program, as excerpted here: 

The program aims to save taxpayer money by reducing costs associated with arrest and jail time. Also, the recipient of a civil citation pays for the cost of their treatment...
Leon County is the first county in Florida to give law enforcement officers the discretion to hand out adult civil citations...
Under the civil-citation program, the offender would have to undergo an assessment within 72 hours, perform 25 hours of community service, undergo treatment for any underlying issues that contributed to the offense, pay all costs to the program and face arrest if the conditions of the program are not met.

Gogh, Self Portrait, 1887

This program would go further to protect those making once in a lifetime mistakes than the current Pretrial Intervention Programs provided by State Attorney's Offices in nonviolent drug cases and select misdemeanors and felonies in Florida. 

While Pretrial Intervention Programs if successfully completed result in dismissal of filed charges, Civil Citation Programs are better in that no criminal charges are filed by the prosecution nor is there an arrest. Because there is no criminal record, there's no longer any need for expungement or sealing of records nor should there be any problems with future employment opportunities which an arrest and criminal record would mar.
The catch? This is Florida, of course you knew there was a catch...you'll need to plan to do your criminal act in Leon County, Florida as that's the only county far sighted enough to launch the program. Tampa Bay will continue to rely only on Pretrial Intervention Programs until the results of the Civil Citation Program are tabulated, debated and eventually adopted. 
Clearwater Criminal Lawyers would opt to give our Tampa Bay law enforcement officers discretion to handout Civil Citations now rather than waiting for the obvious beneficial results from Leon County, not only saving money, but saving the reputations, jobs and happiness of good folks who make one foolish mistake.