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The Florida Senate on Monday unanimously approved a proposal that would halt law enforcement officers from using boat safety inspections as a pretense for “intrusive” checks, a priority of Gov. Ron DeSantis. But the chances of the proposal becoming law are in doubt because the House has not moved forward with the idea. The Senate bill (SB 1388), directed at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, would prohibit officers from stopping or boarding vessels simply to perform safety or marine equipment inspections. The bill wouldn’t prohibit officers from stopping boats when they believe other boating violations have occurred. DeSantis has argued that officers could better spend resources and time by not conducting vessel inspections without probable cause. “We even had the situation out of Jupiter, got millions and millions of views on the internet, where you had somebody pulled over for supposedly driving a boat under the influence and then blows a 0.0 breathalyzer. And then they still went after them. And that’s unacceptable,” DeSantis said in February. Before Monday’s vote, the Senate added provisions from two other boating-related bills. That includes increasing penalties when boat operators leave the scene of crashes that result in deaths without first offering aid, providing identifying information or contacting law enforcement. The other addition to the bill involves derelict vessels and long-term anchoring.
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