TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida House approved a bill designed to protect parents' safety during custody exchanges: House Bill 385, called the "Cassie Carli bill."
It requires Florida's sheriffs to outline at least one specific designated location in their jurisdictions for safe custody exchanges.
Rep. Dr. Joel Rudman, R-Navarre, filed the bill in 2023 in response to the death of Cassie Carli, a mother who disappeared after dropping off her daughter with her ex-boyfriend. Her body was found buried in a barn in Alabama.
Rudman sponsored the bill as a way to protect parents from a similar fate.
"Instead of parents traveling long distances or to each other’s homes, this gives judges a right to say, 'This is an unusual case. There seems to be a lot of conflict or tension. We’re going to make sure this exchange takes place in a safe, secure location,' which is what HB 385 is," Rudman told NBC 15.
The law would only affect county sheriff's offices. Police departments would not be included in this law, though some already have a similar policy of officially designated safe exchange places.
In some counties, sheriff's offices have already set up safe exchange places for people exchanging items rather than children.
For instance, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office set up its safe exchange zone locations in 2016 and spotlighted them whenever a meeting to trade items bought on Craigslist or a similar marketplace turned deadly, like the 2017 murder of a man who tried to sell his dirt bike on Craigslist.
If the bill becomes law, sheriffs will have to designate a parking lot and mark it with purple lights or signs that identify it as an exchange site. It would go into effect July 1.
