Privacy in Florida for first responders

What protects you in Florida

Florida's main shield is F.S. §119.071(4)(d), which exempts home address, phone, date of birth, photographs, and the names and locations of children for active and former sworn law enforcement, firefighters, judges, prosecutors, and a long list of other public servants. The list is broad — it covers everyone from corrections officers to certified EMTs to code enforcement officers and child protective investigators.

The protection is opt-in. File a written request with the agency holding your records and the named fields become confidential. Once on file, the agency cannot release them under a public-records request.

Marsy's Law was passed by Florida voters in 2018 as a constitutional amendment for crime victims. For a few years agencies used it to redact officer names from incident reports when officers were the victims of an assault. That ended in November 2023 when the Florida Supreme Court ruled in City of Tallahassee v. Florida PBA (SC2021-0651) that Marsy's Law does not give any victim — officer or civilian — a categorical right to withhold their name. Officer-name redaction under Marsy's Law alone is no longer a reliable lever. The 2026 legislature is debating SB 1064 / HB 1027 to shield officer identities for 72 hours after an assault, but those bills are not yet law.

What still leaks

Three sources stay open in Florida even with §119.071 protections filed:

1. Property appraiser records. Every Florida county property appraiser publishes deeds, tax data, and ownership records online. They're free, public, and the brokers scrape them aggressively. Buying a home in Florida puts your address in the broker pipeline within weeks. §119.071 doesn't apply to the property appraiser unless you separately file with that office — and even then, the redaction varies by county.
2. Court filings. Florida court records are published county by county and many counties publish full pleadings online. Civil suits, divorce, traffic court — all can include your home address in filings. The §119.071 election doesn't reach court filings without a separate motion.
3. Out-of-state and commercial brokers. Florida law shields what Florida agencies disclose. Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, and the rest scrape from out-of-state aggregators and commercial feeds. §119.071 doesn't reach them.

Laws that work for you here

• F.S. §119.071(4)(d) — file the written request with each agency holding your records. Free, fast, broad coverage.
• Property appraiser request — file separately with your county property appraiser to redact your home address from the public property record. The form varies by county; check with your appraiser's office.
• Marsy's Law — after the 2023 Florida Supreme Court ruling, it no longer shields an officer-victim's name as a matter of right. Other §16(b) protections (location-identifying detail) may still apply on a case-by-case basis. Talk to your department legal before relying on it.
• DMV records (HSMV 96020) — file Form 96020 with Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to withhold your address under §119.071(4)(d)2.a and §744.21031.
• Address Confidentiality Program — substitute-address program through the AG's office for victims of domestic violence, sexual battery, stalking, and human trafficking.

What we sweep that the state doesn't

The state shield closes the agency disclosure path. We handle the broker path. We file standard opt-outs across 200+ people-search sites and re-check every two weeks. After a property transaction in Florida, we re-check inside 30 days because the property appraiser publishing pipeline is the fastest re-list driver in the state.