Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law House Bill 3 (HB3) on Friday, which provides a $1,000 bonus to all sworn-in Florida Law Enforcement Officers and other first responders like firefighters and EMTs. Sheriffs, under the bill, will also benefit from a $5,000 salary increase.
HB 3 additionally makes available $10,000 to law enforcement officers who adopt children through the state child-welfare system, with the benefit increasing to $25,000 for adoptions involving children with special needs.
The budget is planned to allocate $124 million to increase salaries for correctional officers.
In an attempt to draw more police officers into the state, new police officers in Florida will receive a $5,000 bonus and will have up to $1,000 in tuition, fees, and police academy tuition costs covered. DeSantis has pushed for a more police-friendly legislature over the past year, combatting the ‘Defund the Police’ movement spreading through the nation.
“This is the right thing to do, but strategically for our state, given everything you’re seeing in other states, we have the opportunity — you know, we already have strong law enforcement, but we are just going to have no peer in terms of the folks we have working for our municipal counties and state agencies in Florida,” said DeSantis. “We’ve done a lot to support the men and women of law enforcement over the last few years. That type of support was few and far between in this country … we never did that in Florida. We never backed down.”
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