2023 Florida Statutes
< Back to Statute SearchTitle XXIX PUBLIC HEALTH
Chapter 397
SUBSTANCE ABUSE SERVICES
SECTION 6772Protective custody without consent.
397.6772 Protective custody without consent.—
(1) If a person in circumstances which justify protective custody as described in s. 397.677 fails or refuses to consent to assistance and a law enforcement officer has determined that a hospital or a licensed detoxification or addictions receiving facility is the most appropriate place for the person, the officer may, after giving due consideration to the expressed wishes of the person:
(a) Take the person to a hospital or to a licensed detoxification or addictions receiving facility against the person’s will but without using unreasonable force. The officer shall use the standard form developed by the department pursuant to s. 397.321 to execute a written report detailing the circumstances under which the person was taken into custody. The report must include all emergency contact information for the person that is readily accessible to the law enforcement officer, including information available through electronic databases maintained by the Department of Law Enforcement or by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Such emergency contact information may be used by a hospital or licensed detoxification or addictions receiving facility only for the purpose of informing listed emergency contacts of a patient’s whereabouts pursuant to s. 119.0712(2)(d). The written report shall be included in the patient’s clinical record; or
(b) In the case of an adult, detain the person for his or her own protection in any municipal or county jail or other appropriate detention facility.
Such detention is not to be considered an arrest for any purpose, and no entry or other record may be made to indicate that the person has been detained or charged with any crime. The officer in charge of the detention facility must notify the nearest appropriate licensed service provider within the first 8 hours after detention that the person has been detained. It is the duty of the detention facility to arrange, as necessary, for transportation of the person to an appropriate licensed service provider with an available bed. Persons taken into protective custody must be assessed by the attending physician within the 72-hour period and without unnecessary delay, to determine the need for further services.
(2) The law enforcement officer must notify the nearest relative of a minor in protective custody and must notify the nearest relative or other known emergency contact of an adult, unless the adult requests that there be no notification. The law enforcement officer must document such notification, and any attempts at notification, in the written report detailing the circumstances under which the person was taken into custody as required under paragraph (1)(a).
History.—s. 6, ch. 93-39; s. 741, ch. 95-148; s. 24, ch. 2016-241; s. 10, ch. 2022-36.