Police Vehicles, Vacation Rentals and Emotional Support Animals

With only three weeks left in the 2020 Florida Legislative Session, your CALL Team has been busy. Last Friday, Governor DeSantis signed SB 476 (sponsored by Senator Ed Hooper) into law. This bill prohibits condominium, cooperative, and homeowners’ associations from enforcing restrictions against police vehicles being parked inside their communities. This prohibition would apply regardless if the police vehicle is driven by an owner, a tenant, or a guest of an owner. Senator Hooper sponsored the bill after a Clearwater police officer was fined last summer for parking her police car in her driveway in an HOA. There have always been two schools of thought on the issue of police vehicles being parked in plain sight in private residential communities. Some people feel that a marked vehicle makes the community safer while others believe it is an eyesore or that the vehicle’s presence indicates that there is a “criminal incident occurring”.