Florida Begins Arresting Witnesses For Filming Police

Fresh Take Florida reports:

Florida’s new Halo Law, the controversial statute intended to protect law enforcement from harassment, went into effect at the start of this year. Now the first people arrested and prosecuted under it say they were left in the dark. At least 11 people so far have been arrested on charges of violating the new law, which bans people from being within 25 feet of a police officer, firefighter or paramedic at the scene of an incident.

The law includes no specific protections for anyone recording or merely quietly watching police or firefighters within 25 feet.

In practice, the Halo Law lets police get rid of witnesses temporarily and take their phones as evidence if they violate it, said Matt Landsman, a Gainesville-based defense attorney. “It’s doing exactly what I suspected it was for, which is to stop people from monitoring the police, not for safety,” he said. The Santa Rosa County sheriff’s top lawyer, Jennifer Rogers, said in a statement that deputies aren’t required to notify anyone of the 25-foot rule to be arrested.

Read the full article.

Florida begins first prosecutions under controversial ‘Halo Law’

Reporting by @Aidandisto of @FreshTakeFlahttps://t.co/sCtNXoX2xq#FlaPol pic.twitter.com/rdDQkhLEag

— Florida Politics (@Fla_Pol) April 30, 2025