Officers will now need a reason to pull boats over in the water.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the legislation Monday called the Boater Freedom Act. It requires probable cause for law enforcement to stop and search boats. He said during the bill’s signing that it’s an important change.
“To just go in without any basis is not the way we want to do it in the state of Florida, and I think it's unnecessarily created friction between the boating community and some folks in law enforcement,” he said.
The law also bans local municipalities from regulating boats based on fuel types, essentially banning cities and counties from mandating boats to have electric engines instead of gas. The new law goes into effect July 1st.