Florida Gov. DeSantis signs 'safe exchange' custody bill

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed a bill that will give courts the power to require parents to use “neutral safe exchange” locations when they share custody of children.

Under the measure (HB 385), judges could require use of such locations if “there is a risk or an imminent threat of harm to one party or the child during the exchange.”

The locations would have to be in the parking lots of sheriffs’ offices and would have to meet requirements such as having adequate lighting and continuous video surveillance.

The parking lots also would be required to have purple lights or signs “to clearly identify the designated area as a neutral safe exchange location.”

The bill, which will take effect July 1, was called the “Cassi Carli Law,” after a Northwest Florida mother who disappeared after meeting the father of her child to make a timeshare exchange. Carli was later found dead in Alabama.

The bill passed during the legislative session that ended March 8.