Marsy's Law's offers protections for victims but has law enforcement confused about what it can tell communities about crime.

BOYNTON BEACH — In February, a car struck Boynton Beach police officer Greg Wertman as he chased a man suspected of shoplifting. His name was in story after story. His department even posted a photo of him when he got out of the hospital.

But in January, when a man allegedly pinned a Boynton Beach officer inside his car and drove off, dragging her 350 feet, the public never learned that officer's name. The city won't tell.

And on Wednesday, the city declined to name the woman fatally shot at the Manatee Bay apartments off Federal Highway, in an incident in which the man who killed her himself was fatally shot by city police.

The reason: Marsy's Law.

Marsy's Law became Florida Law in November, when voters approved constitutional Amendment 6 by a 62-38 margin. It awards several specific rights to crime victims, including to be protected from the accused and to have their safety and that of their family considered when courts make bail or release decisions.

Now government agencies and media companies statewide are sorting out how the rights of victims squares with the public's established right to know, and how Marsy's Law will limit what people can learn about crime in their neighborhoods.

Law-enforcement agencies are interpreting the law widely, and some have appealed to state authorities for clarity. One lawmaker has introduced a bill in the Florida Legislature that supporters say can provide that clarity. First Amendment advocates say it doesn't do enough.

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A few prominent law-enforcement agencies are choosing to reveal much less about crime than they have in the past. A few are opting to say nothing.



— Martin County is redacting crime victims' names and other identifying information in all reports.

— Both Tampa police and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office have stopped providing any victim's name, address, or date of birth, regardless of the type of crime.

— Last week, the consolidated police agency for Jacksonville and Duval County said it no longer would reveal where some crimes occurred and who the alleged victims were.

In Palm Beach County, both the sheriff's office and West Palm Beach police say they are seeking guidance from their legal departments. A Boca Raton spokesman said that agency is waiting to see what the Legislature does.

So far, the office of Florida's Attorney General has received no requests for opinions on how the law should be applied, the office said Tuesday.

The Florida amendment was patterned after the national "Marsy's Law" movement. It was started by California tech billionaire Henry Nicholas and named for his sister Marsalee, a college student who allegedly was stalked and murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 1983.

A week after Marsy's death, Nicholas and his mother were confronted by the man in a grocery store where they'd stopped after visiting her grave. Marsy's mother had no idea the man had been let out on bond. At the time, courts had no obligation. The man eventually was convicted of second-degree murder.

Laws since passed across the country now require courts to consider the safety of victims and families when setting bail and release conditions, and to give families legal standing — and with it the ability to speak to the court — at bail hearings, pleas, sentencing and parole hearings.

Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, herself is a crime victim; she was molested as a child by her nanny. She recently filed a bill that would ensure aspects of the amendment are enforced. Book's bill specifically grants victims the right to prevent disclosure of information that could be used to locate or harass a victim or the victim’s family. It also would mandate that police agencies give victims documents detailing Marsy's Law.

It also bans law-enforcement agencies from blocking officers' names if they were crime victims in the line of duty. That would have forced Boynton Beach to name the police officer who was dragged.

Florida's First Amendment Foundation, an open-government advocacy group that's partly financially supported by Florida print and broadcast news outlets, argues the Sunshine Law already has language barring the identifying of victims of domestic violence and sex crimes.

It says Book's proposal doesn't speak specifically to the clash between Marsy's Law and the Sunshine Law. Besides the current confusion, some agencies are blacking out parts of documents that had been made public before the amendment passed and became law, the foundation has said.

In mid-March, Marsy's Law for Florida, the group that pushed for the constitutional amendment, obtained a legal opinion from Tallahassee attorney Barry Richard that a crime victim must consent to the release of any information that could be used to find or harass them.

“In today’s world, it is generally easy to locate a person using the person’s name given the abundance of online search resources," wrote Richard, who issued the opinion at Book's request. He also opined that, before information is made public, the agency had to give the victim or victim’s family reasonable opportunity to object.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who is also legislative chairman for the Florida Sheriffs Association, told the Tampa Bay Times in January: "I don't think the intention was to create a blanket confidentiality. I think it's clear the information doesn't become confidential unless the victim asks for it to be."

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The case of the unnamed Boynton Beach officer — unlike Wertman, she had been the victim of a crime — is just one of three instances in which that department invoked Marsy's Law. On Jan. 22, the agency named a woman whose purse was snatched but not another in the same incident. And on Jan. 17, it withheld the name of a woman who had had her checks stolen and cashed. Then came Wednesday morning's shootings at the Manatee Bay apartments.

In an informal survey of Florida newspapers by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, respondents agreed that not all departments were withholding identification, but the number of agencies doing so seemed to be increasing, with some asking victims first and others just holding back unilaterally. Some examples:

— In southern Broward County, Pembroke Pines police withheld the names of the parents of four children orphaned after their mother was found dead and their father fatally shot himself in front of police officers.

— In Miramar, also in southern Broward County, police would not tell The Miami Herald the name of a battered school board employee.

— In February, when a Sarasota daycare worker was charged with child neglect, the county sheriff would not name the center.

— In the Jan. 23 shooting at a bank in Sebring, authorities initially wouldn't name three of the five victims after relatives cited the new law.

— On the Space Coast, authorities would not name a homeowner who killed two intruders in a botched home invasion. The intruders were named.

Law enforcement says it's not fair to suggest it's using an ax instead of a scalpel. Both the Florida Police Chiefs Association and the Florida Sheriffs Association have said they're confused about what to disclose.

“It would be helpful for agencies who are the front line ... to have some guidance,” David Marsey, general counsel of the Florida Police Chiefs Association, said at a January meeting of the Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee, as reported by the newsletter of the Florida Bar. “The consensus between the legal advisers is this is in a state of flux.”