Updated November 6, 2026

For law enforcement officers, few moments are more devastating than being on the other side of the law. Whether you serve with the Tampa Police Department, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, or any agency in the Tampa Bay area, an arrest or criminal investigation brings risks that reach far beyond the courtroom.

Moreover, for officers who have spent their careers putting people behind bars, the stakes are uniquely personal. An officer facing charges is fighting for a career, a reputation, personal safety, and a future, along with freedom. I am Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Rocky Brancato. My firm, The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., a Tampa criminal defense firm, can help put you back in duty, where you belong.

Law Enforcement Agencies We Serve

The Stakes Are Higher for Officers

For most defendants, the concern is avoiding fines, probation, or jail. For officers, however, the impact can be far harsher. Because of your “position of trust,” prosecutors may argue for tougher treatment than they would for a civilian.

Officer arrests are more common than most people think. A National Institute of Justice-funded study by Bowling Green State University researchers, Police Integrity Lost: A Study of Law Enforcement Officers Arrested (2016), identified 6,724 cases from 2005 through 2011 in which sworn officers were arrested. Those cases involved 5,545 individual officers employed by 2,529 state and local law enforcement agencies.

Loss of Second Amendment Rights

Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), even a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction bars you from possessing a firearm or ammunition, and 18 U.S.C. § 925(a)(1) expressly withholds the usual exemption for government-issued service weapons from that ban. As a result, you would be unable to carry the very weapon that has defined your career. For an officer, losing firearm rights effectively ends your law enforcement career.

Personal Safety Concerns

If you have put people behind bars over the course of your career, the loss of your badge and firearm creates personal safety risks. Consequently, you lose not only your ability to work but also your ability to protect yourself and your family from those who may harbor grudges.

FDLE Certification at Risk

The Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission, staffed by FDLE, can revoke, suspend, or place on probation an officer’s certification on a finding that the officer failed to maintain good moral character under § 943.1395(7), Florida Statutes. That finding does not require a criminal conviction, so disciplinary findings from an internal investigation can threaten your certification even if the criminal case is dropped. Therefore, protecting your certification requires defending against both criminal charges and administrative consequences.

Charges We Defend Against

The Brancato Law Firm defends officers against a wide range of criminal charges. Each type carries its own risks, but for law enforcement officers, the professional consequences often outweigh even the criminal penalties.

If You Have Faced Rocky Brancato’s Cross-Examination Before

Many officers in Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties have already faced Rocky Brancato in court. His cross-examinations are known for dismantling investigations and exposing weaknesses in testimony.

If you have ever been on that side of the stand, you know how difficult that pressure can be. However, when Rocky Brancato is in your corner, the equation flips entirely. His loyalty becomes 100% to you. Those accusing you will face the same relentless defense you once experienced in the witness box.

Trusted in the Most Serious Situations

The Tampa Police Benevolent Association and the Suncoast Police Benevolent Association trust Attorney Brancato to serve as on-call attorney for officer-involved shootings. That trust comes from more than 25 years of high-level criminal defense in Tampa Bay’s courts.

These organizations chose Rocky to serve the law enforcement community because they know he provides the most strategic, loyal, and high-level criminal defense available in the Tampa Bay area. Rocky knows that sometimes the chief law enforcement officer will take adverse positions against you in the media, for their own political expediency. He is not afraid and he is ready to change the narrative.

Unique Perspective from the Public Defender’s Office

Before founding The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., Rocky Brancato served as Chief Operations Officer of the Hillsborough County Public Defender’s Office, the largest criminal defense operation in the county, where he oversaw a staff of over 100 attorneys. In that role, he collaborated extensively with law enforcement agencies across Hillsborough County.

As a result, he gained a perspective that few defense attorneys possess. That experience now informs his defense of officers who find themselves under investigation.

I Know What You Were Trained to Do—Because I Taught It

As a former police academy instructor, I trained officers on criminal procedure and courtroom testimony. I know what you were taught about Fourth Amendment searches, Miranda requirements, use of force documentation, and how to present yourself on the stand. When prosecutors or internal affairs try to second-guess your split-second decisions, I can put your actions in the context of your actual training—not some unrealistic standard invented after the fact.

Protecting Law Enforcement Officers’ Rights

Officers and correctional officers face unique risks that civilians do not. Therefore, a defense strategy must protect your rights at every stage:

• Garrity protections during internal affairs questioning, plus the rights in Florida’s Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, § 112.532, Florida Statutes, including notice of the complaint and the right to have counsel present when an interrogation concerns your continued fitness for duty
• Independent review of evidence, from body-worn cameras to reports and witness statements
• Defense strategies tailored to certification risks and administrative hearings
• Strategic reputation management to limit media and public exposure
• Aggressive courtroom representation against prosecutors who seek to make an example of you

Garrity protections come from Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967). New Jersey officers were told they would be removed from office if they refused to answer investigators’ questions, and some of their answers were later used to prosecute them. The U.S. Supreme Court held that statements obtained under threat of removal from office cannot be used in a later criminal prosecution.

For more, see our posts on nurses and other licensed healthcare workers and teachers facing criminal charges.

Frequently Asked Questions

Take Action Before It’s Too Late

Investigations move quickly, and hesitation can cost opportunities to protect your record, your rights, and your reputation. If you are a law enforcement officer in Hillsborough, Pinellas, or Pasco County and are under investigation or facing charges, you need an attorney who understands what is at stake. Early representation before charges are filed can shape whether charges are filed at all.

Your career, your reputation, and your freedom deserve a defense attorney trusted in the most serious cases—an attorney who will fight with the same precision in your defense that once challenged you in the courtroom.

Before you sit for an internal affairs interview or talk to investigators, call The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., founded by Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Rocky Brancato, at (813) 727-7159 for a confidential consultation. Our firm has Spanish-speaking staff, and attorney Jean-Luc Adrien speaks Spanish, Haitian Creole, and French.

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A.
620 E. Twiggs Street, Suite 205, Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 727-7159
Serving Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A. is a Tampa-based criminal defense practice. We are not affiliated with any other Brancato-named law firms.

On-Call Attorney for Tampa Police Benevolent Association & Suncoast PBA

Related: Tampa DUI Lawyer | Tampa Domestic Violence Lawyer | Tampa Sex Crimes Lawyer | Tampa Homicide Lawyer

Filming an arrest on your phone is legal, but the way you film it can get you arrested. As a former police academy instructor, a former Chief Operations Officer of the Hillsborough County Public Defender’s Office, where I oversaw a staff of over 100 attorneys, and the founder of The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., a Tampa criminal defense firm, I have seen these encounters from the training side and the defense side. Our attorneys defend people arrested while recording police, and the cases usually turn on distance, warnings, and what the video itself shows.

Is it legal to record police in Tampa?

Yes. In Smith v. City of Cumming, 212 F.3d 1332 (11th Cir. 2000), a Georgia couple sued after police kept Mr. Smith from videotaping officers. The Eleventh Circuit, whose decisions bind federal courts in Florida, held that people have “a First Amendment right, subject to reasonable time, manner and place restrictions, to photograph or videotape police conduct,” though it found the Smiths had not shown the officers violated that right. The right covers sidewalks, streets, parks, and other public places in Tampa and Hillsborough County.

The right has limits. In Crocker v. Beatty, 995 F.3d 1232 (11th Cir. 2021), a driver stopped on the median of I-95 in Martin County to photograph a fatal crash, and a deputy took his phone. The Eleventh Circuit held the deputy had qualified immunity on the First Amendment claim because it was not clearly established that Smith protected photographing from a highway median at a chaotic crash scene. Crocker still won $1,000 from a jury on his separate Fourth Amendment claim over the phone seizure. The lesson: film from a lawful place, and the seizure of your phone can be challenged even when the recording claim fails.

Scholars have tied this right to the role phone video now plays in public debate. Professor Seth F. Kreimer’s article “Pervasive Image Capture and the First Amendment: Memory, Discourse, and the Right to Record,” 159 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 335 (2011), argues that recording images is protected expression, not mere conduct. Encounters with police are common: the Bureau of Justice Statistics report Contacts Between Police and the Public, 2022 found that 19% of U.S. residents age 16 or older, about 49.2 million people, had contact with police in 2022.

What does Florida’s 25-foot buffer law, section 843.31, prohibit?

Section 843.31, Florida Statutes, created by chapter 2024-85, Laws of Florida (SB 184) and effective January 1, 2025, makes it a crime to knowingly and willfully violate a first responder’s verbal warning not to approach and to approach or remain within 25 feet with the intent to impede or interfere with the responder’s duties, threaten the responder with physical harm, or harass the responder. “First responder” includes law enforcement officers, correctional probation officers, firefighters, and emergency medical care providers.

A violation is a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a fine of up to $500 under sections 775.082 and 775.083. Standing within 25 feet is not a crime by itself, and neither is recording. The intent element is where most of these cases are won or lost.

What other charges do people face for filming police?

The most common charge is resisting an officer without violence under section 843.02, Florida Statutes, a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail. That charge requires proof that the officer was engaged in the lawful execution of a legal duty and that the person obstructed or opposed it. Filming, by itself, is not obstruction. Refusing a lawful order to move, physically blocking an officer, or stepping into an active scene can be.

In Hillsborough County, these charges are misdemeanors filed in county court, and a person taken into custody is booked at the Orient Road Jail. Our Hillsborough County criminal defense attorney team reviews body camera footage, the bystander’s own video, and dispatch records to test the officer’s account of distance and intent.

Can police make you stop recording or delete your video?

Officers can give lawful orders that affect where you stand, but they cannot lawfully order you to delete a recording, and a warrantless search of your phone is generally prohibited under the Fourth Amendment. If an officer seizes your phone as “evidence,” do not consent to a search, do not unlock it, and say clearly that you do not consent. That refusal preserves a later motion to suppress and, as Crocker shows, a seizure claim.

Does Florida’s wiretap law ban recording police audio?

Usually not for police encounters in public. Section 934.03, Florida Statutes, makes it a third-degree felony to intercept an “oral communication” without the consent of all parties, but section 934.02 defines oral communication as one made with a justified expectation that it is not being intercepted. In Waite v. State, No. 5D2023-1354 (Fla. 5th DCA Aug. 16, 2024), a Citrus County man was charged with intercepting oral communications for secretly recording his conversations with on-duty sheriff’s deputies about official business. The Fifth District held the deputies had no reasonable expectation of privacy in those conversations and reversed the denial of his motion to dismiss those charges.

There is a caution. A concurring judge in Waite noted that phone calls are “wire” communications, not oral ones, and that secretly recording a phone call with an officer could be charged under a different part of the statute. Recording an officer you can see in public is very different from secretly recording a private phone call, and the safest course is to record openly.

How can you film police safely in Tampa?

1. Record openly from a lawful place. Sidewalks and public property are best; do not stand in a roadway, median, or active crime scene.
2. Keep your distance. Use zoom rather than stepping closer. Staying 25 feet back avoids a section 843.31 charge entirely.
3. Obey a warning to back up. Move, keep recording, and say aloud that you are complying so the video captures it.
4. Do not touch officers or equipment, and do not block anyone’s path.
5. Do not unlock or hand over your phone. State that you do not consent to a search.
6. Save and back up the video. Upload it to cloud storage quickly; it may be the best evidence in your case or someone else’s.

Frequently asked questions

Is it illegal to film police within 25 feet in Florida?

No, not by itself. Section 843.31 requires a verbal warning, a knowing violation, and intent to interfere, threaten, or harass, so filming within 25 feet without that intent is not a crime under that statute. The Brancato Law Firm uses the video and the officer’s own body camera to contest the intent element in these cases.

Can I be arrested for recording a traffic stop in Tampa?

Recording a traffic stop is legal, including your own stop, as long as you follow lawful commands and do not interfere. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm defend drivers and passengers when a recording leads to a resisting charge, and we often use that same recording as the defense.

Can police take my phone because I recorded them?

Officers sometimes seize phones as evidence, but searching the phone generally requires a warrant or your consent. The Brancato Law Firm challenges unlawful phone seizures and searches with a motion to suppress through our Hillsborough County defense practice.

Can charges for filming police be dropped in Florida?

Yes. Section 843.31 and resisting charges are frequently dropped or dismissed when video shows the person kept distance, complied with warnings, or did not interfere. The Brancato Law Firm gathers bystander video and body camera footage early, before it is overwritten.

Is it legal to record police inside a police station in Florida?

The answer depends on the area, because lobbies and secure areas are not the same as a public sidewalk, and federal courts have treated recording inside government buildings differently from recording outdoors. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm advise checking posted rules and leaving rather than arguing if told to stop in a non-public area.

For how this fits into the rest of a case, see our guide to each stage of a Florida criminal case.

Talk to a Tampa criminal defense attorney about a recording arrest

Video from the scene, yours and the officers’, is the evidence that wins these cases, and body camera footage is not kept forever. Call The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., founded by Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Rocky Brancato, at (813) 727-7159 as soon as you are released so our attorneys can request it. You can call us at any hour, and our office is two blocks from the courthouse. Our firm has Spanish-speaking staff, and attorney Jean-Luc Adrien speaks Spanish, Haitian Creole, and French. Read our guide for Spanish-speaking criminal defense clients in Tampa. For more about our defense strategies, visit our Hillsborough County Criminal Defense page.

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A.
620 E. Twiggs Street, Suite 205, Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 727-7159
Serving Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A. is a Tampa-based criminal defense practice. We are not affiliated with any other Brancato-named law firms.

For a police officer, a deputy, a soldier, or an armed security guard, a domestic violence arrest is a career problem before it is a criminal case. As founder of The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., a Tampa criminal defense firm, a former police academy instructor, and an on-call attorney for the Tampa PBA and the Suncoast PBA, I have spent more than 25 years in Hillsborough County courtrooms, and I know how quickly a plea offer that sounds harmless can end the right to carry a gun. Our attorneys look at every domestic violence case through two lenses at once: the criminal charge, and what any resolution will do to a client’s firearm rights, license, and job.

What Federal Law Bans Guns After a Domestic Violence Conviction?

Federal law makes it a crime for anyone convicted of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” to possess, ship, or receive a firearm or ammunition. The ban is 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), often called the Lautenberg Amendment, and the definition sits in 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33). A misdemeanor qualifies if it has the use or attempted use of physical force, or the threatened use of a deadly weapon, as an element, and it was committed against a person in one of the relationships the statute lists.

The domestic relationship does not have to appear in the name of the Florida charge. In United States v. Hayes, 555 U.S. 415 (2009), the Supreme Court held that a West Virginia battery conviction could trigger the ban because the victim was the defendant’s wife, even though the battery statute said nothing about a domestic relationship. The Eleventh Circuit, which covers Florida, applied that rule to a Florida plea in United States v. Johnson, 981 F.3d 1171 (11th Cir. 2020): a Duval County man charged with domestic battery by strangulation and assault pleaded guilty to simple misdemeanor battery under section 784.03, and the court held that plea was a qualifying domestic violence conviction because the victim was his wife. Pleading down to plain battery does not avoid the federal ban.

The federal government enforces this ban at every gun counter. From November 30, 1998, through September 30, 2026, the FBI’s background check system issued 212,945 denials for misdemeanor domestic violence convictions and 86,481 more for domestic violence protection orders, according to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System federal denials report.

Does a Withhold of Adjudication Count for the Federal Gun Ban?

Whether a Florida withhold of adjudication counts as a conviction for the federal domestic violence gun ban is not settled, which makes any plea a risk. The ATF regulation, 27 C.F.R. § 478.11, says a person is not convicted unless “the person is considered to have been convicted by the jurisdiction in which the proceedings were held.” Florida’s general rule is that a withhold is not a conviction: in Clarke v. United States, 184 So. 3d 1107 (Fla. 2016), the Florida Supreme Court held that a guilty plea with adjudication withheld is not a conviction under the felon-in-possession statute, because that statute does not say otherwise. Florida’s domestic violence laws often do say otherwise. Since July 1, 2026, section 741.2801 counts a withhold or no contest plea as a prior domestic violence conviction, and the sealing bar in section 943.0584 does the same.

In practice, a withhold on a domestic battery case can still lead to a background check denial or a long delay while an examiner researches the record. A 2016 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that domestic violence conviction checks were the slowest category the FBI handled: in fiscal year 2015 the FBI completed 90 percent of those denials within seven business days, because the information needed was often not in the national databases and examiners had to contact state agencies. Our attorneys treat a plea to any force offense against a covered family member as a potential lifetime ban and plan the defense around avoiding one.

Are Police Officers and Soldiers Exempt From the Domestic Violence Gun Ban?

No. Police officers, deputies, corrections officers, and members of the military have no exemption from the misdemeanor domestic violence gun ban, including for a duty weapon. Federal law exempts government-issued firearms from most of the federal gun statutes, but 18 U.S.C. § 925(a)(1) expressly carves out section 922(g)(9). An officer with a qualifying conviction cannot lawfully carry a service weapon, which in most agencies means the officer cannot keep the job.

A domestic violence injunction works differently, and the difference matters. A final injunction issued after a hearing can trigger a separate federal ban under section 922(g)(8), and Florida’s section 790.233 makes it a first-degree misdemeanor to possess a firearm while a final domestic violence injunction is in force. Both rules leave room for an officer’s duty weapon, because the government exemption in section 925(a)(1) still applies to injunction cases and section 790.233 exempts a certified officer carrying a firearm for official duties unless the agency says otherwise. The criminal conviction is the one with no exception.

Can a Police Officer Lose Certification Without a Domestic Violence Conviction?

Yes. Florida’s Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission can discipline a certified officer for conduct that amounts to battery, assault, stalking, or violating an injunction, even if the State never files a charge. Under Florida Administrative Code Rule 11B-27.0011(4)(b), an officer fails the moral character standard by pleading guilty to one of those offenses “notwithstanding any suspension of sentence or withholding of adjudication,” or by “the perpetration by an officer of an act that would constitute” one of them “whether criminally prosecuted or not.” The listed statutes include sections 784.011 (assault), 784.03 (battery), 784.048 (stalking), and 741.31 (injunction violations).

That means an officer’s defense has two tracks: the criminal case and the agency’s internal investigation, which can move on its own schedule. Statements made in one can surface in the other. When a PBA member calls our firm after a domestic arrest, we coordinate the criminal defense with the union representative from the start, and we plan the internal affairs interview before it happens. Our post on criminal defense for law enforcement officers in Tampa covers the broader process.

What Happens to a Florida Concealed Weapon License After a Domestic Violence Arrest?

A Florida concealed weapon license is suspended after an arrest or formal charge for a disqualifying crime until the case is resolved, and a domestic violence plea can block it for years. Under section 790.06, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services must deny a license to anyone who had adjudication withheld on a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence until three years after probation ends, to anyone subject to an active domestic violence injunction, and to anyone barred from owning a gun under federal law. The license count shows how many people this reaches: Hillsborough County had 127,042 active concealed weapon licenses as of August 31, 2025, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Which Outcomes Protect Your Gun Rights in a Domestic Violence Case?

The outcomes that protect gun rights are the ones with no plea to a force offense against a covered family member: no charge filed, a dismissal, an acquittal, or, in some cases, a plea to an offense without a force element. The table shows how each common outcome plays out.

Every one of these outcomes is decided in negotiation or at trial, and the leverage is greatest before the State files. Our pre-file advocacy work puts the evidence in front of the prosecutor early, and when a plea is on the table, we check the exact statute and wording against the federal definition before a client signs anything. Our Tampa domestic violence defense attorney page and our Tampa gun crimes lawyer page explain how we handle each side of these cases.

What Should Officers and Gun Owners Do After a Domestic Violence Arrest?

The first week after a domestic violence arrest decides most of what happens to a gun owner’s rights and career, so these steps come first:

1. Follow every bond and injunction condition on firearms exactly. If a judge orders guns surrendered, surrender them the way the order requires and keep the receipt.
2. Do not give a statement to investigators about the incident, and talk to counsel and your union representative before any internal affairs interview.
3. Do not contact the alleged victim while a no-contact order is in place, even if they reach out first.
4. Save evidence: texts, call logs, photos of your own injuries, and names of witnesses.
5. Hire a lawyer before the filing decision. The State has 30 days to file if you are in jail and 60 if you are on bond, and the work that protects a career happens before then.

Domestic Violence and Gun Rights FAQs

Can I own a gun if my domestic violence charge is dropped in Florida?

Yes. A dropped or dismissed domestic violence charge is not a conviction, so it does not trigger the federal ban under section 922(g)(9), though an active injunction or bond condition can still restrict guns while it lasts. The Brancato Law Firm works to get domestic violence cases declined before filing, which is the cleanest result for a gun owner. Learn more about our representation before charges are filed.

Does a withhold of adjudication on domestic battery stop me from buying a gun?

It can. Whether a Florida withhold counts as a conviction under the federal ban is unsettled, and a withhold on a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence bars a Florida concealed weapon license until three years after probation ends under section 790.06. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm review any proposed plea against both the federal definition and the Florida licensing rules before a client accepts it.

Can a police officer carry a duty weapon after a domestic violence conviction?

No. The federal misdemeanor domestic violence ban has no exception for government-issued firearms, so a qualifying conviction bars an officer from carrying a service weapon. The Brancato Law Firm, on call for the Tampa PBA and the Suncoast PBA, defends officers with that consequence in view from the first phone call; see our law enforcement officer defense post.

Can a domestic violence conviction be expunged in Florida to restore gun rights?

No. Under section 943.0584, a domestic assault or battery that ends in a plea or verdict, even with a withhold, cannot be sealed or expunged in Florida, so expunction is not a path back to gun rights. Because the options after a plea are so limited, The Brancato Law Firm focuses on the outcome before any plea is entered.

Does a temporary injunction take away my guns in Florida?

Florida’s possession ban in section 790.233 and the federal ban in section 922(g)(8) apply to final injunctions issued after a hearing, not to a temporary injunction entered without one. The Brancato Law Firm prepares clients for the final hearing, where the injunction, and the gun ban that comes with it, is decided.

Does the 2022 “boyfriend loophole” change apply to me?

It applies only to domestic violence convictions entered on or after June 25, 2022, when federal law added current or recent former dating partners to the ban. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm check the date and the relationship in every case, because a person with one dating-relationship conviction can regain federal gun rights after five years if no other disqualification applies. The statute is 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33)(C).

For more about our defense strategies, visit our Domestic Violence page.

A plea offer at arraignment can end a career, so get advice before you answer it. Call The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., founded by Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Rocky Brancato, at (813) 727-7159, and our attorneys will review the arrest, the firearm consequences, and your job’s rules before the State decides what to file. You can call us at any hour, and our office is two blocks from the courthouse. Our firm has Spanish-speaking staff, and attorney Jean-Luc Adrien speaks Spanish, Haitian Creole, and French. Read our guide for Spanish-speaking criminal defense clients in Tampa.

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A.
620 E. Twiggs Street, Suite 205, Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 727-7159
Serving Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A. is a Tampa-based criminal defense practice. We are not affiliated with any other Brancato-named law firms.

Assault cases are usually decided by one disputed moment: whether the other person reasonably feared violence was about to happen right then. That moment is often captured on body camera or a phone, and it often looks different on video than in the report. I’m Rocky Brancato, founder of The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., a Tampa criminal defense firm. I have taken more than 150 jury trials to verdict over more than 25 years in Hillsborough County courtrooms, and assault cases are where our attorneys often see overcharging: road-rage arguments, bar disputes, and neighbor feuds written up as felonies because someone mentioned a weapon.

This guide explains what the State must prove, how Hillsborough cases have been decided on the fear and weapon elements, the penalties, the 10-20-Life correction, and the defenses that work.

How does Florida define assault?

Assault is the threat; battery is the touch. Under section 784.011, Florida Statutes, “An ‘assault’ is an intentional, unlawful threat by word or act to do violence to the person of another, coupled with an apparent ability to do so, and doing some act which creates a well-founded fear in such other person that such violence is imminent.” No touching is required.

The State must prove three things beyond a reasonable doubt:

1. An intentional, unlawful threat by word or act to do violence.
2. An apparent ability to carry out the threat at that moment.
3. An act creating a well-founded fear that the violence was imminent.

Each element is a place the case can fail. A threat about next week is not imminent. An angry person across a parking lot with no weapon may lack the apparent ability. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm build the defense around whichever element the State’s evidence leaves weakest.

Can words alone be assault in Florida?

Usually not. In H.W. v. State, 79 So. 3d 143 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012), the Third District reversed an assault finding against a student who threatened a school administrator, holding that “Proof of the crime of assault requires not just proof of a threat, but also proof of some physical act directed toward the victim.” The court quoted an older case: “A person’s mere intention to commit an assault is not enough; there must be some overt act sufficient to demonstrate a threat directed at the person placed in fear.”

Words become assault when they arrive with conduct: stepping toward someone, raising a fist, or reaching for a waistband. In our firm’s experience, assault charges are sometimes filed on facts that amount to an ugly argument, and the overt-act requirement is where those cases fall apart.

Does the alleged victim have to be afraid?

Not necessarily, and this cuts both ways in the Second District, which hears appeals from Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties. In Sullivan v. State, 898 So. 2d 105 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005), a Hillsborough County case from Riverview, the court held that a victim’s own lack of fear is not decisive when “the circumstances were such as to ordinarily induce fear in the mind of a reasonable man.” But the court also held the violence must be imminent, meaning “near at hand.” A deputy more than 30 feet away behind a patrol car, with another deputy in between, was too far from the knife for an assault, and the court reversed that count.

The Second District later affirmed an assault adjudication in S.P.M. v. State, 66 So. 3d 317 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011) even though the victim testified he was not afraid, applying Sullivan’s reasonable-person rule. The practical lesson: an alleged victim saying “I wasn’t scared” helps, but the stronger defense is usually distance, timing, and the absence of imminent violence. Our attorneys measure those facts from the video and the scene.

What is aggravated assault in Florida?

Aggravated assault is an assault committed “With a deadly weapon without intent to kill” or “With an intent to commit a felony” under section 784.021, Florida Statutes. It is a third-degree felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

The jump from a 60-day misdemeanor to a 5-year felony usually turns on one fact: whether the object was a “deadly weapon.” Our Tampa violent crime lawyer team treats that question as the center of every aggravated assault case.

What counts as a deadly weapon in Florida?

A deadly weapon is an instrument likely to cause death or great bodily harm when used as designed, or an object used or threatened to be used in a way likely to cause death or great bodily harm. Florida’s standard jury instruction uses that two-part test. Under it, a knife, a bat, a bottle, or a car may or may not be a deadly weapon depending on how it was used.

Hillsborough County cases show how much precision matters. In Proctor v. State, 205 So. 3d 784 (Fla. 2d DCA 2016), a jury convicted a defendant of aggravated assault with a firearm but specially found he did not possess a firearm. The Second District held that was a true inconsistent verdict, because “the firearm was a necessary element of the aggravated assault,” and reduced the conviction. In J.M. v. State, No. 2D2022-3344 (Fla. 2d DCA Jan. 31, 2025), the court reversed an aggravated assault finding because the charge alleged the juvenile “carried” a knife, and “the word ‘carry’ cannot be replaced or assumed to be a synonym for ‘use’ in the context of the aggravated assault statute.” In Verela v. State, No. 3D2024-0402 (Fla. 3d DCA Mar. 5, 2025), the Third District reduced an aggravated battery conviction to simple battery because the charging document never alleged a deadly weapon at all. Our attorneys read the charging document as closely as the police report.

Does 10-20-Life apply to aggravated assault?

No. Florida removed aggravated assault from its 10-20-Life statute in 2016. Chapter 2016-7, Laws of Florida, effective July 1, 2016, struck aggravated assault from the list of offenses in section 775.087, Florida Statutes. The current list includes aggravated battery, robbery, burglary, and other felonies, but not aggravated assault.

Many websites still say otherwise. Displaying a gun during an assault does not trigger an automatic 3-, 10-, or 20-year minimum. The weapon reclassification rule in section 775.087(1) does not apply either, because a weapon is an essential element of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The one minimum that remains is the 3-year mandatory sentence for aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer under section 784.07, Florida Statutes. When a plea offer assumes a firearm minimum that no longer exists, our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm correct it in writing.

What are the enhanced penalties for assault on protected people?

Florida reclassifies assault upward for certain victims. Under section 784.07, “knowingly committing an assault or battery upon” a law enforcement officer, firefighter, emergency medical care provider, and other listed people while they perform their duties raises simple assault to a first-degree misdemeanor and aggravated assault to a second-degree felony. Utility workers performing work on critical infrastructure were added effective October 1, 2025. The State must prove the defendant knew the person’s status and that the person was performing official duties.

Age works differently. Under section 784.08, Florida Statutes, an assault on a person 65 or older is reclassified “regardless of whether he or she knows or has reason to know the age of the victim.” When the alleged victim is 60 or older, prosecutors may instead charge abuse of an elderly person, which is a felony; our guide on whether elder abuse is a felony in Florida explains that charge.

Is self-defense a defense to assault in Florida?

Yes. Florida’s self-defense statutes cover “using or threatening to use” force, so a threat made to stop someone else’s imminent unlawful force can be justified. Under section 776.012, Florida Statutes, a person may threaten non-deadly force to defend against imminent unlawful force, and may threaten deadly force to prevent imminent death, great bodily harm, or a forcible felony. An aggravated assault charge is often a threatened-force case, and a Stand Your Ground immunity motion can end it before trial. Our guide on when you can use force in self-defense in Florida explains the rules.

How common are aggravated assault cases in Hillsborough County?

Common, though declining. FDLE arrest data published by Florida Health CHARTS show 1,772 aggravated assault arrests in Hillsborough County in 2025, down from 2,050 in 2023. Florida recorded 22,868 aggravated assault arrests statewide in 2025. The measure includes attempted murder and counts arrests, not reported offenses.

National research shows most aggravated assaults reach the police. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in Criminal Victimization, 2024 that 69.1% of aggravated assaults were reported to police in 2024, compared with 40.4% of simple assaults. The Council on Criminal Justice found in its Crime Trends in U.S. Cities: Year-End 2025 Update that reported aggravated assaults were 9% lower in 2025 than in 2024 across the cities it tracks.

Can assault charges be dropped in Florida?

Yes, but not by the alleged victim. Only the State Attorney decides whether to prosecute. What gets assault charges dropped or reduced is evidence: video showing the distance and timing, witnesses who saw who approached whom, proof the threat was conditional or in the future, self-defense facts, and the weakness of a one-witness case. The period after arrest and before the formal charge is the most important window, and our attorneys use it for pre-file advocacy.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. More results are on our case results page.

What should you do if you are charged with assault?

Say nothing about the incident to anyone but your lawyer, and start preserving your side now. Save texts, social media messages, and any video, and list every witness. Surveillance video is often overwritten within weeks. Do not contact the alleged victim, especially if a no-contact order was entered at first appearance. Our post on battery and aggravated battery in Florida covers the charge that often travels with assault.

Frequently asked questions about assault charges in Florida

Is assault a felony in Florida?

Simple assault is a second-degree misdemeanor, but aggravated assault with a deadly weapon or intent to commit a felony is a third-degree felony. The Brancato Law Firm focuses first on whether the State can prove the weapon or the felony intent that makes the charge a felony.

Can I be charged with assault if I never touched anyone?

Yes. Assault in Florida is the threat, not the touch, but the State must prove an overt act, an apparent ability, and a well-founded fear of imminent violence. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm look for the missing element, often the imminence of the threat.

Is pointing a gun at someone aggravated assault in Florida?

It can be, but it can also be justified self-defense if you reasonably believed it was necessary to stop imminent unlawful force. The Brancato Law Firm raises Stand Your Ground immunity when the facts support it, and our Tampa gun crimes lawyer page explains how firearm charges are defended.

Does aggravated assault with a firearm carry a mandatory minimum in Florida?

Not under 10-20-Life, which no longer applies to aggravated assault after July 1, 2016. The only remaining minimum is 3 years when the victim is a law enforcement officer, and our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm correct any offer that assumes otherwise.

What happens if the alleged victim does not want to press charges?

The State Attorney still decides, but a reluctant witness changes the strength of the case. The Brancato Law Firm presents the alleged victim’s truthful sworn statement and the other evidence to the prosecutor during the filing window, as described on our Tampa violent crimes defense page.

Is a knife automatically a deadly weapon in Florida?

No. Whether a knife is a deadly weapon depends on how it was used or threatened, which makes it a question for the jury. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm also check whether the charging document properly alleged the weapon, because Florida courts have reversed convictions when it did not.

Talk to our Tampa assault defense attorneys before the charging decision

The prosecutor deciding your case has usually heard only one side. The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., founded by Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Rocky Brancato, will get the video, find the witnesses, and put your side in front of the prosecutor before the charge is filed or the case is set for trial. Call (813) 727-7159 for a free, confidential consultation. You can call us at any hour. Our firm has Spanish-speaking staff, and attorney Jean-Luc Adrien speaks Spanish, Haitian Creole, and French. Read about our Spanish and Haitian Creole criminal defense services.

For more about our defense strategies, visit our Violent Crimes page.

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A.

620 E. Twiggs Street, Suite 205, Tampa, FL 33602

(813) 727-7159

Serving Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A. is a Tampa-based criminal defense practice. We are not affiliated with any other Brancato-named law firms.

Before I founded The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., a Tampa criminal defense firm, I taught criminal arrest procedure to recruits as a police academy instructor, and jurisdiction was one of the first limits every class learned. I am Rocky Brancato, and across more than 25 years of Hillsborough County practice and over 150 jury trials, I have seen cases turn on one plain question: where was the officer standing when the arrest happened? Our attorneys ask that question about every arrest made by an off-duty or out-of-town officer, and when the answer falls on the wrong side of a city or county line, we move to suppress what the officer found.

Does an off-duty officer still have arrest powers in Florida?

Yes. Inside the officer’s own jurisdiction, being off duty does not shrink a Florida officer’s arrest authority. In Sinquefield v. State, 1 So. 3d 370 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009), a City of Palmetto officer tried to stop a man in another part of Manatee County. The Second District Court of Appeal, which hears appeals from Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties, said the officer’s off-duty status did not change his arrest authority. The problem was location: he was sworn only inside Palmetto, so outside the city he acted as a private citizen.

Officers who work paid private details are also still police. In State v. Williams, 297 So. 2d 52 (Fla. 2d DCA 1974), a uniformed Tampa police sergeant hired by a dance hall to work during his off-duty hours seized a handgun from a patron’s handbag and arrested her. The court agreed with the trial judge that the sergeant “acted as an officer of the City of Tampa,” so the constitutional rules for police searches applied to him. The court still reversed the suppression order, because it found the patron had consented to the search.

That rule matters in Tampa because extra-duty work is an organized program here. The Tampa Police Department’s Extra Duty Office contracts with private citizens, businesses, and organizations for uniformed officers at special events, construction-site traffic control, and escorts, and it requires a background check for establishments with an alcohol license. As we have noted in our Ybor City disorderly conduct cases, Tampa Police also maintain a heavy presence along Seventh Avenue at closing time. A uniformed officer working a bar door inside Tampa city limits has full police power, and the same Fourth Amendment limits that govern a stop and frisk in Florida apply to that officer. Our attorneys test an extra-duty officer’s stop, search, and arrest exactly as we would an on-duty officer’s.

Where does a Tampa Bay officer’s arrest authority stop?

A Florida officer’s full arrest power stops at the edge of the agency’s territory. For a city police officer, that edge is the city limit. For a sheriff’s deputy, it is the county line. The Florida Supreme Court explained in State v. Repple, 428 So. 3d 59 (Fla. 2025) that, under Article VIII, section 2(c) of the Florida Constitution, a city’s police power outside its borders exists only where the Legislature has authorized it. Sheriffs work differently. Under section 30.15(5)(a), Florida Statutes, a sheriff’s jurisdiction runs throughout the entire county, including incorporated cities, concurrently with city police.

The patchwork is large. In 2025, Florida police departments employed 20,647 full-time officers, sheriffs’ offices employed 23,776 full-time law enforcement officers, and school and port agencies employed another 1,987, according to FDLE’s Criminal Justice Agency Profile report. Every one of those officers carries a badge with a boundary. A Tampa officer driving home through Brandon, which is unincorporated Hillsborough County, has left Tampa’s jurisdiction. A Hillsborough deputy standing in the same spot has not. A Pasco deputy who stops a driver on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa is outside Pasco County, and the question becomes which exception, if any, gave that deputy authority. When a Hillsborough County case involves an out-of-town officer, our Hillsborough County criminal defense team starts by mapping exactly where each step of the stop, detention, and arrest took place.

What can an officer legally do outside their jurisdiction?

An officer outside their jurisdiction can arrest only through fresh pursuit, a mutual aid agreement, or a citizen’s arrest. A fourth, narrower rule covers DUI breath tests after an in-city arrest. If no rule applies, the officer acted without authority, and the defense can ask the court to suppress what followed.

Fresh pursuit. The pursuit has to start inside the officer’s territory. When a fresh pursuit arrest happens outside the officer’s county, the officer must immediately notify the officer in charge of that jurisdiction, and both must bring the arrested person before a trial court judge of the county where the arrest was made without unnecessary delay.

Mutual aid agreements. Florida’s Mutual Aid Act allows written voluntary cooperation agreements for routine work across jurisdictional lines and written requested operational assistance agreements for emergencies. Each agreement must spell out the assistance, the agency in command, and a time limit, and a copy must be filed with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement within 14 days after it is signed. The writing requirement can be waived for up to 90 days only after a Governor-declared state of emergency. Because the agreement is a document, our attorneys demand it in discovery and read its terms against what the officer actually did.

The DUI breath test rule. Repple involved a Maitland officer who arrested a driver for DUI inside Maitland and then requested a breath test at a sheriff-run facility outside the city. The Florida Supreme Court held that Florida’s implied consent law authorized that request, quashed the Sixth District decision that had upheld suppression, and approved the result in State v. Torres, 350 So. 3d 421 (Fla. 5th DCA 2022), a Winter Park case with the same pattern. The Court expressly declined to adopt a broader “continuing investigation” exception. That matters locally: as we have explained in our post on refusing a breathalyzer in Florida, breath testing in the 13th Judicial Circuit runs through the sheriff’s central breath testing facility. Under Repple, a city officer’s request there is authorized when the DUI arrest itself happened inside the officer’s city. An arrest made outside the city needs its own lawful basis first.

What counts as a lawful citizen’s arrest in Florida?

A private person in Florida may arrest someone who commits a felony or a breach of the peace in that person’s presence, and an officer outside their jurisdiction has that same power and no more. In Phoenix v. State, 455 So. 2d 1024 (Fla. 1984), the Martin County Sheriff and a deputy stopped a truck in St. Lucie County after an air and ground surveillance operation and arrested the occupants. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the arrests as citizen’s arrests, reasoning that officers outside their jurisdiction should not be any less capable of making a felony arrest than a private citizen, nor have any greater power.

Drunk driving is the classic out-of-jurisdiction breach of the peace, which is why so many of these cases are DUI cases. In Edwards v. State, 462 So. 2d 581 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985), an off-duty Okeechobee officer, not in uniform and showing no badge, followed a pickup truck outside the city limits for about five miles. The driver crossed the center line three to seven times, forced oncoming cars onto the shoulder, and nearly hit a bridge abutment. The court held that this driving was a breach of the peace and upheld the citizen’s arrest. If you were stopped for DUI by an officer from another city or county, our Tampa DUI lawyer page explains how our attorneys build that challenge.

Two more limits narrow the doctrine. First, for a misdemeanor, there must be an actual arrest, meaning the person is deprived of the freedom to leave. In Steiner v. State, 690 So. 2d 706 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), the State tried to support a DUI arrest with a security guard’s account of a driver whose car later caught fire. The guard never detained the driver, so there was no citizen’s arrest, and the officer could not rely on the guard’s account for a misdemeanor the officer did not see. The Fourth District restored the county court’s order suppressing the evidence. Second, “breach of the peace” is read narrowly. The definition comes from section 877.03, Florida Statutes, the same statute that defines disorderly conduct, and conduct that creates no more than annoyance does not qualify.

Legal scholars have criticized how vague the doctrine is. In Vilifying the Vigilante: A Narrowed Scope of Citizen’s Arrest, 25 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 557 (2016), Professor Ira P. Robbins argues that citizen’s arrest rules are unclear on the level of suspicion required, how long a person may be held, and how much force is allowed. He recommends limiting the power to a few groups, including out-of-jurisdiction police. Our attorneys use those narrow edges to test every off-duty arrest.

What happened in Jeffries v. State?

In Jeffries v. State, No. 5D2024-1721 (Fla. 5th DCA July 31, 2026), the Fifth District threw out evidence from an off-duty officer’s citizen’s arrest because the man he arrested had not committed a felony or a breach of the peace in his presence. The officer worked for the Clay County School District police but lived in Putnam County, outside his jurisdiction. His daughter told him someone had been trying to break into his patrol car. He went outside, saw Christien Jeffries already leaving his property, identified himself as law enforcement, and ordered him to stop. Jeffries kept walking and went through an open gate into a neighbor’s backyard, and the officer did not follow him in.

The officer then drove his personal truck to a nearby apartment complex, found Jeffries, again identified himself as law enforcement, and ordered him to stop. He testified that he did not identify himself as a private citizen because most people would not stop for one. Jeffries stopped, turned, and tossed an object that turned out to be a pill bottle. The officer restrained him, and responding officers found a stun gun on him. Jeffries was later convicted of possession of an electric weapon or device by a convicted felon.

The State conceded that the officer never saw a felony, so the case came down to breach of the peace. The court rejected each piece of the State’s argument. The officer never saw anyone touch his patrol car, his daughter’s report was not his own observation, and the smudges he photographed were found only after the arrest. Leaving a yard when confronted, walking through a neighbor’s open gate, and appearing intoxicated without endangering anyone were not breaches of the peace. Approaching an elderly woman at the complex in the middle of the day, without threatening her or even raising his voice, was not one either. The court distinguished drunk-driving cases like Edwards because they involved conduct that “clearly and significantly endangers the public.” It reversed the denial of the motion to suppress and vacated the conviction for possession of an electric weapon by a convicted felon.

The court also held that the tossed pill bottle could not justify the search that turned up the stun gun, because Jeffries had already stopped in compliance with the order when he threw it. We cover that abandonment issue in our post on whether police can use drugs you threw down in Florida.

Jeffries is a Fifth District decision, but it reaches Tampa Bay courtrooms. Under Pardo v. State, 596 So. 2d 665 (Fla. 1992), a district court decision binds every Florida trial court when no other district has ruled differently, so Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco judges must follow it unless the Second District decides otherwise. Our post on disorderly conduct in Florida covers how the same narrow breach-of-the-peace definition plays out in Ybor City arrests.

What is the “color of office” rule?

The color of office rule bars an officer outside their jurisdiction from using police authority to see unlawful activity or gain evidence that a private citizen could not get. Phoenix set the line. Using a police car and announcing “police” at the moment of arrest does not, by itself, ruin a citizen’s arrest, as long as the evidence for the arrest was gathered before the officer asserted any official authority.

The rule bites when an officer uses the badge to get something. In State v. Sills, 852 So. 2d 390 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003), Coconut Creek officers arrested a man for traffic offenses inside their city, then drove him in handcuffs to his apartment in a neighboring city. There they had him sign a Coconut Creek police waiver of a search warrant and talked about him becoming an informant. The Fourth District affirmed suppression of the pills they found, because the officers obtained his consent through the power of their office, including the prospect of leniency that no private citizen could offer.

In Jeffries, the officer repeatedly announced himself as law enforcement, but the court decided the case on breach of the peace and did not reach a color of office theory. Our attorneys raise both arguments when the facts support them, because they attack different parts of the State’s case.

Is evidence thrown out if an off-duty arrest was unlawful?

Often, yes. When an out-of-jurisdiction arrest has no lawful basis, the usual remedy is a motion to suppress, which asks the judge to exclude the evidence the arrest produced. Our post on the motion to suppress evidence in Tampa explains that process. Suppression is not automatic, though, as the table shows.

One warning sign for the future: in Repple, Justice Grosshans wrote separately that suppression should not be the remedy when an officer oversteps territorial limits, because those limits protect neighboring governments rather than the accused. No other justice joined that view, and the majority did not adopt it. Prosecutors will cite it anyway, which is one more reason our attorneys pair the jurisdiction argument with Fourth Amendment and citizen’s arrest arguments.

Is it resisting arrest to walk away from an off-duty officer outside their jurisdiction?

Not under the resisting without violence statute, if the officer had no authority there. Section 843.02, Florida Statutes requires proof that the officer was engaged in the lawful execution of a legal duty. In Sinquefield, the Second District held that a Palmetto officer acting outside his city was only a private citizen, refused to read the statute as creating a crime of resisting a citizen’s arrest, and reversed the conviction. Our post on resisting an officer without violence in Florida covers the other elements of that charge.

That defense belongs in a courtroom. At the scene, you cannot tell whether an officer is in fresh pursuit, working under a mutual aid agreement, or standing one block inside the city line, and using force can bring new charges that do not depend on jurisdiction. Comply, stay quiet, and let our attorneys contest the officer’s authority later with the records in hand.

What should you do after an arrest by an off-duty or out-of-town officer?

Act within days, because the strongest evidence of where and how the arrest happened disappears fastest.

1. Write down the details while they are fresh. Note the exact location, whether the officer was in uniform or plain clothes, what agency the officer named, what vehicle the officer drove, and the exact words used to make you stop.
2. Identify every camera. Bars, apartment complexes, gas stations, and doorbell cameras can record over old footage within days. Our attorneys send preservation requests right away.
3. Request the DUI license hearing on time. After a DUI arrest, section 322.2615, Florida Statutes gives you 10 days from the notice of suspension to request a formal or informal review hearing.
4. Use the window before charges are filed. The State Attorney’s Office decides what to file after the arrest. Our representation before charges are filed can put the jurisdiction problem in front of the prosecutor before a charging decision is made.
5. File the motion to suppress before trial. Florida’s rules generally require a motion to suppress to be filed before trial, and the hearing depends on dispatch records, body-worn camera video, the agency’s jurisdiction, and any mutual aid agreement on file with FDLE.

Frequently asked questions

Can an off-duty officer working security at a Tampa bar arrest me?

Yes, if the bar is inside the officer’s jurisdiction, because an off-duty officer working a private detail still acts as a police officer, as the court held about a Tampa sergeant in State v. Williams. The Brancato Law Firm reviews extra-duty arrests the same way it reviews on-duty arrests, starting with whether the officer had a lawful reason to stop you. The same review applies when a detail officer outside a bar makes a DUI stop.

Can a Hillsborough County deputy arrest me inside Tampa city limits?

Yes. Under section 30.15(5)(a), Florida Statutes, a sheriff’s jurisdiction runs throughout the entire county, including cities like Tampa, alongside city police. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm focus those cases on whether the deputy had a lawful basis for the stop, since jurisdiction will not be in dispute.

Can a Pinellas or Pasco officer arrest me for DUI in Hillsborough County?

Only through fresh pursuit that began in the officer’s own county, a written mutual aid agreement that covers the activity, or a valid citizen’s arrest for a felony or breach of the peace the officer personally saw. The Brancato Law Firm demands the pursuit records and any mutual aid agreement in these cases and holds the State to proving one of those grounds. If an out-of-county officer arrested you, our DUI defense team can review whether any of them applies.

What counts as a breach of the peace for a citizen’s arrest in Florida?

Conduct that clearly disturbs or endangers others, such as fighting or dangerous drunk driving, can qualify, while conduct that is merely annoying does not. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm compare the officer’s own report against the narrow definition courts apply under Jeffries and section 877.03, Florida Statutes.

Can charges be dropped if the arresting officer was outside their jurisdiction?

Yes, charges can be dropped or reduced when the arrest was unlawful and the key evidence is suppressed, although the outcome depends on whether the State can prove fresh pursuit, a mutual aid agreement, or a valid citizen’s arrest. The Brancato Law Firm raises the jurisdiction problem early, often before the prosecutor makes a filing decision, through our pre-file advocacy.

For how this fits into the rest of a case, see our stage-by-stage guide to the Florida criminal case process.

Talk to a Tampa defense lawyer about an off-duty arrest

Ten days is all you have to challenge a DUI license suspension, and the video that shows where an off-duty or out-of-town officer stopped you can be recorded over even sooner. The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., founded by Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Rocky Brancato, will start by pinning down the officer’s agency, jurisdiction, and legal basis for the arrest, then preserve the footage and records that prove it. Call (813) 727-7159 today to discuss your case. For more about our defense strategies, visit our Tampa DUI defense page.

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A.
620 E. Twiggs Street, Suite 205, Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 727-7159
Serving Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A. is a Tampa-based criminal defense practice. We are not affiliated with any other Brancato-named law firms.

Officers who misuse a license plate reader leave a record of every search, and that audit trail decides these cases on both sides. I’m Rocky Brancato, founder of The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., a Tampa criminal defense firm, and a former Chief Operations Officer of the Hillsborough County Public Defender’s Office, where I oversaw a staff of over 100 attorneys. I also taught at the police academy and am on call for the Tampa PBA and Suncoast PBA. Today our attorneys handle license plate reader cases from both sides of the badge: people whose movements were tracked, and officers accused of tracking them.

Our earlier guide, What Are Flock Cameras and ALPRs in Tampa?, explains how the cameras work. This article covers what happens when the people with access abuse it.

What Happened in the Pinellas County Deputy Arrests?

Three former Pinellas County deputies have been arrested in about five weeks in separate cases involving personal use of law enforcement databases, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced. Travis Stanton and Karl Gwynne were arrested on September 30, 2026, and Ronald Scott on November 5, 2026. All three resigned before their arrests, and each is presumed innocent. The facts of the first two arrests come from the sheriff’s public account, as reported by IONTB.

The 17-year-old and the “ALPR hit” that never happened

Former Deputy Travis Stanton, 33, was a community deputy in Seminole. According to the sheriff, a 17-year-old restaurant worker told him her age and her car on July 28, 2026. Minutes later, Stanton allegedly ran her plate through the Florida Crime Information Center (FCIC) and then used other databases to identify her mother’s household and pull driver’s license photos of the girl and her twin sister. On August 19, he allegedly ran more searches from the Seminole High School parking lot, entering the reason code “verifying an identity.”

Stanton later told the girl he had received an ALPR alert showing her license was suspended for truancy. Gualtieri said no such alert existed, and that Stanton’s case did not involve misuse of the ALPR database itself. He was arrested on charges of unlawful access to a computer network under section 815.06 and official misconduct under section 838.022. Prosecutors later chose different charges. Court records show Stanton is now charged with harassment by use of personal identification information under section 817.568, charged as a third-degree felony, and stalking under section 784.048, a first-degree misdemeanor, the Tampa Bay Times reported. His arraignment is set for November 16, 2026.

381 searches of one woman across five databases

Former Deputy Karl Gwynne, 57, joined the agency in 2005. According to the sheriff, he ran 381 searches on a 35-year-old woman across five databases between January 2025 and July 2026, including 300 ALPR searches. He made 207 of them off duty. Gwynne had arrested the woman in 2010, and she had rejected his advances. He was arrested on four counts of unlawfully accessing a computer system and one count of official misconduct. On October 29, 2026, Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bruce Bartlett filed a no information, dropping all five charges. Bartlett wrote that current Florida statutes “do not address the wrongful conduct reported” and said his office would ask the Legislature to correct the problem next session, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Gualtieri attributed the decision to disagreements over the elements of the statute and noted that a no information does not stop prosecutors from refiling. A no information is not an acquittal, so the audit trail still matters if the state brings the case back.

Third arrest: tracking an estranged wife through Flock

Former Deputy Ronald Scott, 35, joined the agency in 2016. According to the sheriff, from February 14, 2026, until his divorce became final in June, Scott ran more than 100 unauthorized queries through the Flock license plate reader system and driver’s license records, often off duty. He searched his estranged wife, her boyfriend, the boyfriend’s wife, and his wife’s father, and entered false reasons for the searches, including claims of ongoing investigations. An agency audit uncovered them. Scott resigned on November 4, 2026, and was arrested the next morning on three counts of unlawfully accessing a computer and one count of official misconduct, the same charges prosecutors dropped against Gwynne. Bond was set at $20,000, FOX 13 and the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Gualtieri said he believes the elements are in place to justify the charges, and that historical audits of the agency’s systems, which go back to 2022, are now complete. Whether the State Attorney agrees is the open question after the Gwynne dismissal. The Scott case also shows why our attorneys request the audit log and the reason entered for each query in any case that starts with a Flock “hit.” The log shows who searched, when, and why they said they did, and the Pinellas cases show that the stated reason can be false.

What Florida Crimes Apply When an Officer Misuses a License Plate Reader?

Two felony statutes carry most Florida prosecutions, and a third law decides the officer’s pension. Our attorneys analyze all three at the outset of any officer database case.

Why “exceeds authorization” is the heart of the case

Florida courts have debated this question for 30 years. In Gallagher v. State, 618 So. 2d 757 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993), a Sunrise Police Department aide ran her boyfriend through NCIC and FCIC out of curiosity. The Fourth District affirmed her conviction without an opinion, while Chief Judge Glickstein dissented, arguing that the statute punished unauthorized access, not improper use. The current statute was written to close that gap, although the Gwynne dismissal shows that prosecutors do not all read it that way. The 2018 version reached only access “without authorization,” and the version in force after the 2019 amendment also reaches access where “the manner of use exceeds authorization.”

Even so, section 815.06(7)(b) exempts a person acting “within the scope of his or her lawful employment.” Purpose is therefore the battleground. Prosecutors prove it with case numbers, reason codes, and timing, such as Gwynne’s 207 off-duty searches. Our Tampa internet crimes attorney page explains how we defend computer crimes charges.

Why official misconduct is harder to prove

Official misconduct requires two things beyond a bad search. The state must prove the officer falsified, concealed, or altered an official record, and the statute limits “official record” to public records. The state must also prove the officer acted to obtain a “benefit,” which section 838.014 defines as any gain or advantage, including anything the person regards as one.

The benefit element is where these cases are won and lost. In Jones v. State, No. 6D2023-0311 (Fla. 6th DCA June 23, 2023), a Polk County detective falsified investigative reports for two years. The Sixth District ordered acquittal on all 18 official misconduct counts because the state never proved he falsified the reports to obtain a benefit. Trial courts in Pinellas and Hillsborough follow Jones unless the Second District rules otherwise.

The pension consequence few people discuss

A conviction for a chapter 838 felony forfeits a public employee’s retirement benefits under section 112.3173, and a no contest plea counts as a conviction. The exact count matters. In Houston v. City of Tampa Firefighters & Police Officers’ Pension Fund Board of Trustees, 303 So. 3d 233 (Fla. 2d DCA 2020), a Tampa police sergeant accused of using the DAVID driver’s license database in a tax refund scheme pleaded guilty only to receiving stolen federal property. The Second District reversed the forfeiture of her pension and ordered it restored with interest, because her plea did not establish a specified offense. For an officer, what the plea says matters as much as whether there is one.

How Common Is Flock and ALPR Misuse by Police?

Documented cases now number in the dozens. In August 2026, The Washington Post reported that at least 46 officers nationwide had been accused of using license plate cameras for unauthorized tracking, according to Al Jazeera. Our firm tracks these prosecutions because the sentences are rising.

In 2023, the Kansas lieutenant received probation. By September 30, 2026, the Texas officer was headed to prison for five years.

Who Catches Officers Who Misuse License Plate Readers?

Outsiders catch most of them. Where the public record shows how a case began, the first alarm usually came from a victim, a victim’s friend, or a reporter reading public search logs. Agencies then acted quickly. Our attorneys look first at how a case surfaced, because it shapes both the proof and the defense.

Sources: Creative Loafing Tampa, Dexerto, The Washington Post, CNN, and Tech Times.

The Washington Post put it bluntly in an August 2026 headline: “Police departments weren’t looking for officers abusing Flock. We did it for them.” Its review of search logs led to discipline in two departments.

Where the thin blue line holds, and where it breaks

Detection is the weak point. Once misuse is exposed, agencies have acted fast. Pinellas arrested its own deputies, Lufkin called in the Texas Rangers, and Haines City arrested its officer within a day of learning of the searches. In the cases reviewed here, no agency shielded an officer once the facts were public. Four gaps explain why detection lags:

1. No audit requirement. Florida’s ALPR statutes, section 316.0777 and section 316.0778, govern placement, retention, and public records. Neither requires an agency to review who searched what.
2. Empty reason codes. “Investigation” was the most common reason Wisconsin agencies entered for Flock searches in early 2025, the Wisconsin Examiner found.
3. Shared logins. Pinellas runs searches through a shared “service account” across three vendors, so its public log cannot show which deputy searched, TCPalm reported.
4. Shrinking outside visibility. Flock now redacts officer names and plates from public audit logs, which narrows the channel that has caught the most officers.

Who decides the charges

The arresting agency does not make the final charging decision in Florida. The State Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, which covers Pinellas and Pasco, decides whether and how to charge each deputy, and its first two decisions show the gap between an arrest and a prosecution: Stanton’s charges were changed, and Gwynne’s were dropped. In Hillsborough, that decision belongs to the Thirteenth Circuit State Attorney. For an accused officer, the investigation’s path shapes the defense. A shared service account forces the state to prove who ran each search, while an officer’s own admission to a supervisor, as in the Gwynne and Haines City cases, leaves far less room.

What Did Governor DeSantis Order on License Plate Readers?

Governor Ron DeSantis directed the Florida Department of Transportation to revoke permits for ALPRs on state highway rights-of-way, effective September 30, 2026. The FDOT memorandum cited reports of misuse and data privacy concerns. DeSantis said, “I don’t want to have this become a surveillance state,” Axios reported.

Section 316.0777 supplies the authority: ALPRs sit on state highway rights-of-way only at FDOT’s discretion, and must come down within 30 days of notice. The order does not reach city streets, county roads, or private property. Our attorneys tell Tampa Bay drivers the same thing: the cameras moved off state roads, and local networks remain.

Sources: Axios Tampa Bay and ABC Action News.

Where Do Florida Candidates Stand on Flock Cameras?

Neither major-party nominee for governor has promised a full ban, but both support the DeSantis order. Democrat David Jolly wants a judicial warrant before police use the data, and Republican Byron Donalds wants harsher penalties for officers who abuse it, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Donalds called for a pause on Flock contracts in July. Jolly also wants a special legislative session and a ban on use for immigration enforcement.

Locally, former Governor Charlie Crist proposes a moratorium on expanding St. Petersburg’s Flock system, while Mayor Ken Welch defends it, ahead of their November 3 runoff, per Bay News 9. Nationally, more than 150 local governments have deactivated or canceled ALPR contracts, according to the advocacy group DeFlock, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott blocked state agencies from spending on Flock’s networks, Claims Journal reported. Any rewrite the Legislature passes next session will change what ALPR evidence looks like in Tampa Bay courtrooms, and our firm will update this guide when it does.

What Is Law Enforcement’s Case for Keeping License Plate Readers?

Sheriffs and chiefs argue the cameras solve violent crimes and find missing people, and that the answer to misuse is punishment. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” Gualtieri said on September 30, crediting the cameras with solving homicides and rapes. According to the Tampa Police Department, its ALPR system has assisted in 622 arrests, 485 vehicle recoveries, 68 firearm recoveries, and 14 missing-person cases since 2021, per Florida Politics.

The strongest evidence involves abducted children. In 2024, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children partnered with Flock to push AMBER Alert vehicles into the camera network. In August 2026, Lake City police used Flock to find a woman’s SUV that her boyfriend allegedly drove off with while her two children were inside, WFLA reported.

Controlled research is more modest on deterrence. In a randomized experiment across 30 crime hot spots in Northern Virginia, George Mason University researchers found no statistically significant drop in crime from license plate reader patrols during a 30-day follow-up (Lum et al., Journal of Experimental Criminology, 2011), as summarized by the Justice Department’s CrimeSolutions program. That study tested patrols, not investigations. Both claims can hold: the cameras may prevent little crime, yet still find a specific car carrying a specific child. Our attorneys see the same tension in court, where an ALPR hit can be strong evidence of location and weak evidence of anything else.

Does the Fourth Amendment Limit Police Searches of Flock Data?

The law is unsettled, and 2026 moved it toward privacy. In Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 296 (2018), the FBI obtained months of a robbery suspect’s cell-site location records without a warrant, and the Supreme Court held that acquiring them was a search. In Chatrie v. United States, 146 S. Ct. 2193 (2026), police used a geofence warrant to obtain Google location data near a Virginia bank robbery. By a 6-3 vote, the Court held that obtaining location history this way is a search, even for a short period. Justice Kagan wrote for five justices, and Justice Gorsuch concurred in the judgment, as the Congressional Research Service explains. Chatrie never mentions license plate readers, but it repeats Carpenter’s point that society has not expected police to “secretly monitor and catalogue every single movement of an individual’s car.”

The Tampa license plate reader ruling

In United States v. Floyd, No. 8:23-cr-00305 (M.D. Fla. Nov. 21, 2025), detectives tied a robbery suspect’s Mazda to a string of Tampa Bay store robberies through Vigilant hits and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office “Eye on Crime” ALPR system. U.S. District Judge Tom Barber denied suppression, holding that the readers captured discrete snapshots on public roads and that querying the databases was not a search. Floyd predates Chatrie, so our attorneys treat the question as open again for any client whose case rests on a long trail of ALPR hits.

Elsewhere, Schmidt v. City of Norfolk, No. 2:24-cv-621 (E.D. Va. Jan. 27, 2026), upheld Norfolk, Virginia’s network of about 176 Flock cameras. The appeal, No. 26-1227, is tentatively set for Fourth Circuit argument in December 2026. Losing a motion to suppress does not end the issue. At trial, the defense can still challenge whether the camera read the plate correctly and whether the alert was current.

What Should You Do If You Think an Officer Tracked You?

Act within days, write everything down, and demand that the agency preserve its audit logs. Our attorneys take these steps for clients who believe they were tracked:

1. Document the red flags. Write down dates, places, and anything an officer knew about you without a reason to know it. In the Stanton case, the claimed “ALPR hit” was the tell.
2. Request your own ALPR data. Section 316.0777(4)(b) allows an agency to release plate data to the person the plate is registered to, unless it is active criminal intelligence or investigative information.
3. File an internal affairs complaint in writing. Ask the agency to preserve the audit log for your plate, name, and driver’s license number.
4. Ask about protective options. A stalking injunction or a referral to an outside agency, such as FDLE, may fit when the officer’s own department is slow to act.

If you are an officer under investigation

Say nothing about your searches until you have counsel. Under Fla. Stat. 112.532(1)(i), an officer has the right to counsel during an interrogation about fitness for duty. In Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967), the Supreme Court held that statements compelled under threat of job loss cannot be used in a criminal prosecution. Voluntary statements, texts, and audit logs remain fair game. See our law enforcement officer representation articles.

Why Does Timing Matter in a License Plate Reader Case?

Images disappear fast. In August 2026, Flock cut its recommended default retention from 30 days to 7, and Florida caps retention under the schedule set by section 316.0778. A preservation letter sent in the first week can decide a case, whether our firm represents the person tracked or the officer accused. The same is true of messages and phone records, as we explain in our guide to social media evidence in Tampa criminal cases.

Frequently Asked Questions About Flock Camera Misuse

Is it a crime for a Florida officer to look up someone’s license plate for personal reasons?

Yes. Using a police database for a reason outside the job can violate section 815.06, which punishes access that exceeds authorization as a third-degree felony. A false reason code can add official misconduct under section 838.022. In our experience, the audit log is the most important evidence on either side.

Did the Pinellas deputy use Flock cameras to track the 17-year-old girl?

No, according to Sheriff Gualtieri. Stanton allegedly used FCIC, driver’s license, and agency records systems, then falsely told the girl he had received a license plate reader alert. The other deputy, Karl Gwynne, is accused of about 300 ALPR searches on a different woman.

Why were charges dropped against the Pinellas deputy who ran 381 license plate searches?

Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bruce Bartlett filed a no information on October 29, 2026, writing that current Florida statutes do not address the conduct reported against former deputy Karl Gwynne. Sheriff Gualtieri described it as a disagreement over the statute’s elements, and a no information does not prevent refiling. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm follow these charging decisions closely, and an officer under investigation should consider representation before charges are filed.

Do police departments audit officers’ Flock searches?

Rarely on a routine basis, based on the public record. Florida law does not require ALPR audits, and in many documented cases a victim or reporter first exposed the misuse. Our attorneys request the full audit log in every case where license plate reader searches are at issue.

Can I find out whether police searched my license plate?

Possibly. Section 316.0777 permits an agency to disclose ALPR data about a plate registered to you, unless it is part of an active criminal investigation. Because retention is short, The Brancato Law Firm recommends a written request and a preservation demand as soon as you suspect misuse.

Are Flock cameras still operating in Tampa and Hillsborough County?

Yes. The Tampa Police Department and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office removed cameras from state rights-of-way by September 30, 2026, but both still operate license plate readers on city and county roads. Pasco County is the local exception, having ended its Flock contract.

Can an officer lose a pension over a Flock misuse conviction?

Yes, if the conviction is for a “specified offense” such as official misconduct. Under section 112.3173, a conviction or no contest plea to a chapter 838 felony forfeits public retirement benefits except the officer’s contributions. Our attorneys weigh this in every plea discussion in an officer’s case.

What should I do if I am an officer accused of misusing Flock or FCIC?

Call a lawyer before you answer questions about your searches. Florida’s Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights gives you the right to counsel during an interrogation, and the criminal case often moves on a separate track from internal affairs. The Brancato Law Firm represents officers in both proceedings at (813) 727-7159.

For more about our defense strategies, visit our Tampa Internet Crimes Attorney page.

If an officer tracked you, or you are an officer facing a database misuse investigation, call the attorneys of The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., founded by Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Rocky Brancato, at (813) 727-7159. ALPR images may be deleted in as little as 7 days, so contact us before the evidence is gone. Our firm has Spanish-speaking staff, and attorney Jean-Luc Adrien speaks Spanish, Haitian Creole, and French. Read our guide for Spanish-speaking and Haitian Creole-speaking clients.

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A.
620 E. Twiggs Street, Suite 205, Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 727-7159
Serving Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A. is a Tampa-based criminal defense practice. We are not affiliated with any other Brancato-named law firms.