'Safe exchange' child custody bill passes Florida House

Aerial photo of downtown Tallahassee, Florida and the State Capitol. By felixmizioznikov via iStock for WMNF.

The Florida House on Thursday unanimously passed a bill that would allow courts to require that parents who share custody of children use “safe exchange” locations at county sheriff’s offices.

Under the measure (HB 385), courts, as part of what are known as parenting plans, could order parents to exchange children at the locations.

Such orders could come “if the court finds that there is a risk or an imminent threat of harm to one party or the child during the exchange” between parents.

Sheriffs would be required to designate at least one parking lot at sheriff’s offices or substations to serve as exchange sites.

Such locations would have to be marked by purple lights or signs to “clearly identify” the areas, be adequately lit and monitored by video-surveillance systems and be accessible 24 hours a day.

The bill is called the “Cassie Carli” law, after a mother who disappeared after meeting with the father of her child in Northwest Florida to make a timeshare exchange.

Carli was later found dead in Alabama.

Rep. Joel Rudman, a Navarre Republican who sponsored the bill, said the measure’s passing could save “hundreds of lives.”

An identical Senate bill (SB 580) awaits a hearing in the Rules Committee.