321.05 Duties, functions, and powers of patrol officers.—The members of the Florida Highway Patrol are hereby declared to be conservators of the peace and law enforcement officers of the state, with the common-law right to arrest a person who, in the presence of the arresting officer, commits a felony or commits an affray or breach of the peace constituting a misdemeanor, with full power to bear arms; and they shall apprehend, without warrant, any person in the unlawful commission of any of the acts over which the members of the Florida Highway Patrol are given jurisdiction as hereinafter set out and deliver him or her to the sheriff of the county that further proceedings may be had against him or her according to law. In the performance of any of the powers, duties, and functions authorized by law, members of the Florida Highway Patrol have the same protections and immunities afforded other peace officers, which shall be recognized by all courts having jurisdiction over offenses against the laws of this state, and have authority to apply for, serve, and execute search warrants, arrest warrants, capias, and other process of the court. The patrol officers under the direction and supervision of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles shall perform and exercise throughout the state the following duties, functions, and powers:
(1) To patrol the state highways and regulate, control, and direct the movement of traffic thereon; to maintain the public peace by preventing violence on highways; to apprehend fugitives from justice; to enforce all laws regulating and governing traffic, travel, and public safety upon the public highways and providing for the protection of the public highways and public property thereon, including the security and safety of this state’s transportation infrastructure; to make arrests without warrant for the violation of any state law committed in their presence in accordance with state law; providing that no search may be made unless it is incident to a lawful arrest, to regulate and direct traffic concentrations and congestions; to enforce laws governing the operation, licensing, and taxing and limiting the size, weight, width, length, and speed of vehicles and licensing and controlling the operations of drivers and operators of vehicles, including the safety, size, and weight of commercial motor vehicles; to collect all state fees and revenues levied as an incident to the use or right to use the highways for any purpose, including the taxing and registration of commercial motor vehicles; to require the drivers of vehicles to stop and exhibit their driver licenses, registration cards, or documents required by law to be carried by such vehicles; to investigate traffic accidents, secure testimony of witnesses and of persons involved, and make report thereof with copy, if requested in writing, to any person in interest or his or her attorney; to investigate reported thefts of vehicles; and to seize contraband or stolen property on or being transported on the highways. Each patrol officer of the Florida Highway Patrol is subject to and has the same arrest and other authority provided for law enforcement officers generally in chapter 901 and has statewide jurisdiction. Each officer also has arrest authority as provided for state law enforcement officers in s. 901.15. This section does not conflict with, but is supplemental to, chapter 933.
(2) To assist other constituted law enforcement officers of the state to quell mobs and riots, guard prisoners, and police disaster areas.
(3)(a) To make arrests while in fresh pursuit of a person believed to have violated the traffic and other laws.
(b) To make arrest of a person wanted for a felony or against whom a warrant has been issued on any charge in violation of federal, state, or county laws or municipal ordinances.
(4)(a) All fines and costs and the proceeds of the forfeiture of bail bonds and recognizances resulting from the enforcement of this chapter by patrol officers shall be paid into the fine and forfeiture fund established pursuant to s. 142.01 of the county where the offense is committed. In all cases of arrest by patrol officers, the person arrested shall be delivered forthwith by the officer to the sheriff of the county, or he or she shall obtain from the person arrested a recognizance or, if deemed necessary, a cash bond or other sufficient security conditioned for his or her appearance before the proper tribunal of the county to answer the charge for which he or she has been arrested; and all fees accruing shall be taxed against the party arrested, which fees are hereby declared to be part of the compensation of the sheriffs authorized to be fixed by the Legislature under s. 5(c), Art. II of the State Constitution, to be paid such sheriffs in the same manner as fees are paid for like services in other criminal cases. All patrol officers are hereby directed to deliver all bonds accepted and approved by them to the sheriff of the county in which the offense is alleged to have been committed. However, a sheriff shall not be paid any arrest fee for the arrest of a person for violation of any section of chapter 316 when the arresting officer was transported in a Florida Highway Patrol car to the vicinity where the arrest was made; and a sheriff shall not be paid any fee for mileage for himself or herself or a prisoner for miles traveled in a Florida Highway Patrol car. A patrol officer is not entitled to any fee or mileage cost except when responding to a subpoena in a civil cause or except when the patrol officer is appearing as an official witness to testify at any hearing or law action in any court of this state as a direct result of his or her employment as a patrol officer during time not compensated as a part of his or her normal duties. Nothing herein shall be construed as limiting the power to locate and to take from any person under arrest or about to be arrested deadly weapons. This section is not a limitation upon existing powers and duties of sheriffs or police officers.
(b) Any person so arrested and released on his or her own recognizance by an officer and who fails to appear or respond to a notice to appear, in addition to the traffic violation charge, commits a noncriminal traffic infraction subject to the penalty provided in s. 318.18(2).
(5) The department may employ or assign some fit and suitable person with experience in the field of public relations who shall promote, coordinate, and publicize the traffic safety activities in the state and assign such person to the office of the Governor at a salary to be fixed by the department. The person so assigned or employed shall be a member of the uniform division of the Florida Highway Patrol, and he or she shall have the pay and rank of lieutenant while on such assignment.
(6) The Division of Florida Highway Patrol is authorized to adopt rules which may be necessary to implement the provisions of chapter 316.
History.—s. 5, ch. 19551, 1939; CGL 1940 Supp. 4151(619); s. 5, ch. 20451, 1941; ss. 1, 21/2, ch. 23724, 1947; s. 1, ch. 26709, 1951; s. 1, ch. 28081, s. 1, ch. 28119, 1953; s. 1, ch. 29774, s. 1, ch. 29970, 1955; s. 1, ch. 67-143; ss. 24, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 1, ch. 69-155; s. 9, ch. 69-216; s. 207, ch. 71-136; s. 1, ch. 71-275; ss. 4, 5, ch. 80-298; s. 16, ch. 86-185; s. 384, ch. 95-148; s. 6, ch. 2000-325; s. 63, ch. 2004-265; s. 30, ch. 2010-223; s. 19, ch. 2011-4; s. 20, ch. 2011-66.
Cited 48 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 2004 WL 1274334
...and maintenance of the roads" in this state falls to the Florida Department of Transportation and local governments for the roads within their respective jurisdictions. See § 335.04(2), Fla. Stat. (1993). By contrast, FHP's duties, as enumerated in section 321.05 of the Florida Statutes, are as follows: 321.05 Duties, functions, and powers of patrol officers....
...the movement of traffic thereon; ... [and] to enforce all laws now in effect regulating and governing traffic, travel, and public safety upon the public highways and providing for the protection of the public highways and public property thereon.... § 321.05, Fla....
...3 (Fla.1988) ("[T]he voluntary assumption of responsibilities which might be undertaken by others creates a duty of care on the part of the assuming party."). In this case, FHP was clearly authorized to respond to the stalled tractor-trailer under both section 321.05, Florida Statutes (1993), which requires FHP to patrol the state highways, regulating, controlling, and directing the flow of traffic, and section 316.194(3)(a), Florida Statutes (1993), which authorizes FHP to move a vehicle stopped on the main-traveled part of a highway....
..., and police power functions, and the statutory waiver of sovereign immunity did not create a new duty of care. On the other hand, there may be substantial governmental liability under categories III and IV. Id. at 921. FHP's duties enumerated under section 321.05 of the Florida Statutes are clearly category II functions....
Cited 41 times | Published | District Court of Appeal of Florida
...g the driver's license, or, secondly, if the right of arrest depends entirely on factors happening in point of time prior to such interception. Such, however, is not the law. Members of the Florida Highway Patrol are vested with authority under F.S. Section 321.05(1), F.S.A....
...[10] The oral argument transcript is also available at 2008 WL 4527980 (U.S. Oct. 7, 2008). [11] Defendant also challenges the authority of the Florida Highway Patrol to conduct a narcotics investigation of a residence located over one-hundred miles from the site of a traffic stop. See Fla. Stat. § 321.05 (2004) (outlining duties, functions, and powers of Florida Highway Patrol officers)....
Cited 17 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 2000 WL 12841
...t or vested in a division, bureau, or section of that department; powers and duties assigned or transferred to a division, bureau, or section of the department must not be construed to limit this authority and this responsibility. ... *284 Moreover, section 321.05, Florida Statutes (1997), gives broad law enforcement powers to "[t]he [highway] patrol officers under the direction and supervision of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, " § 321.05, Fla....
Cited 12 times | Published | Florida 3rd District Court of Appeal
...This is akin to the authority of proper law enforcement officers to stop an automobile for the purpose of making a driver's license or car registration *414 check. City of Miami v. Aronovitz, 114 So.2d 784 (Fla. 1959); Cameron v. State, 112 So.2d 864, 869 (Fla. 1st DCA 1959); Section 321.05(1), Florida Statutes (1975)....
Cited 7 times | Published | Florida 5th District Court of Appeal | 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1737
...nt of all the traffic laws of the state. The alleged duty imposed on DHSMV comes from the Florida Highway Patrol regulation which apparently requires highway patrol officers to report damaged signs to their assigned patrol station operator, and from section 321.05(1), Florida Statutes, which sets out duties, functions, and powers of patrol officers....
Cited 6 times | Published | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal | 1996 WL 382271
...defendant out of his vehicle. This is because once defendant exited his vehicle, probable cause developed for a DUI arrest; any search of defendant's person or his vehicle would then have been justified as a search incident to his lawful arrest. See § 321.05 Fla....
Cited 5 times | Published | Florida 3rd District Court of Appeal | 1999 WL 1015605
...The respondent may be admitted to bail in accordance with the provisions of chapter 903 and the applicable rules of criminal procedure, pending a hearing. § 741.30(9)(b), Fla. Stat. (1993). [9] Appellee, Pollock, argues that FHP had duties and obligations pursuant to section 321.05, Florida Statutes, which provides in pertinent part: Duties, functions, and powers of patrol officers.-The members of the Florida Highway Patrol ... shall perform and exercise throughout the state the following duties, functions and powers: (1) To patrol the state highways and regulate, control, and direct the movement of traffic thereon; § 321.05, Fla....
Cited 4 times | Published | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal | 1996 WL 23494
...Killen, was not arrested for any criminal offense. However a search of the automobile was done pursuant to a consent by the Claimant, W.B. Killen, and $80,889.00 was seized after a drug detection dog alerted to the money. The Claimant, W.B. Killen, in his Motion to Dismiss, cites Florida Statute 321.05 setting forth the duty functions and powers of the Florida Highway Patrol. In relevant part, the Statute states that " no search shall be made unless it is incident to a lawful arrest ". (Emphasis added) The Court finds that since this search was not incident to a lawful arrest and since Florida Statute 321.05 limits the authority of Florida Highway Patrol to making searches only incident to lawful arrest, the search in the instant cause was improper. Since the trial judge based his granting of the appellee's motion to dismiss on the alleged restrictions of section 321.05, Florida Statutes (1993), an examination of the statute is necessary. Section 321.05, which relates to the duties, functions, and powers of Florida Highway Patrol officers, provides in pertinent part: The members of the Florida Highway Patrol are hereby declared to be conservators of the peace and law enforcement offic...
...1st DCA 1960). The reason for this rule is that the Legislature must be assumed to know the meaning of words and to have expressed its intent by the use of the words found in the statute. An examination of the legislative history of Florida Statute 321.05 is therefore necessary to determine the Legislature's intent in the current enactment of said statute. The last expression of the Legislature will prevail in cases of conflicting statutes. State v. Dunmann, 427 So.2d 166 (Fla. 1983), receded from on other grounds, Daniels v. State, 587 So.2d 460 (Fla. 1991). The 1955 version of 321.05(1), states in part: to make arrests without warrant for the violation of any state criminal law committed upon the right-of-way of any public road, such arrest may be made only when the offense is committed in the presence of such director or patrol officer, but no arrest shall be made without probable cause nor any search made not necessarily appropriately incident to making effective lawful arrest.... Section 321.05(4), Florida Statutes (1955), provides in part: The members of the patrol shall not have the right or power of search nor shall they have the right or power of seizure, except as permitted by this section; providing nothing herein shall...
...her law relating to the same purpose, so that they are in harmony, and courts should avoid construction which places in conflict statutes which cover the same general field. City of Boca Raton v. Gidman, 440 So.2d 1277 (Fla. 1983). An examination of section 321.05, Florida Statutes (1993), reveals that the Legislature has designated Florida Highway Patrol Troopers as conservators of the peace and law enforcement officers of the state, with common law arrest powers....
...n to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. See Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973). There is no clear indication that the Florida Legislature, by the enactment of section 321.05, Florida Statutes (1993), intended to deprive highway patrol troopers of the ability to validly conduct searches which were not incident to a lawful arrest, but which came under section 901.151(5), Florida *436 Statutes (1993) (Florida...
...that no search shall be made unless it is incident to lawful arrest, to regulate and direct traffic concentrations and congestions," clearly relates only to arrests involving "the need to regulate and direct traffic concentrations and congestions." § 321.05(1), Fla....
...nly to arrests relating to "traffic concentrations and congestion," and not all other forms of warrantless searches which highway patrol troopers are otherwise lawfully entitled to perform. Any other construction would put the underlined portions of section 321.05, Florida Statutes (1993), in conflict with the remaining language of 321.05, which expressly authorizes troopers to search for contraband, as well as other Florida statutes and case law relating to troopers' ability to conduct searches which are not incident to a lawful arrest. Adopting appellee's interpretation of the underlined portion of section 321.05 would defeat the spirit of the statute and cripple highway patrol troopers in routine searches for contraband, which are not incident to a lawful arrest....
afforded other peace or law enforcement officers”); § 321.05, Fla. Stat. (declaring Florida Highway Patrol
This Florida statute resource is curated by Graham W. Syfert, Esq., a Jacksonville, Florida personal injury and workers' compensation attorney. For legal consultation, call 904-383-7448.
