Welcome to

Lawmakers are pushing a bill that could cut down on juvenile arrests and hopefully still set kids on the right path, but as Matt Galka tells us, retailers are worried it could end up costing them.

Edward Barnes says an arrest when he was a kid sent his life barreling down the wrong path.

“By profession I used to teach middle school, and as a result of that juvenile record I lost my career,” said Barnes.

Barnes travelled from Daytona Beach to tell lawmakers to support expanding the juvenile citation program.  First-time offenders are eligible to receive citations or  be put into diversion programs.  A proposal moving in the Capitol would allow those methods to be used on the second offense or beyond.

Retailers are worried that the bill could limit consequences for shoplifters, and that could end up costing the stores.

“Organized retail crime goes beyond what people normally think of as simple shoplifting, it’s a $2 billion dollar criminal enterprise in the state of Florida,” said Samantha Padgett with the Florida Retail Federation.

Padgett says without a limit on the program, juveniles could continue shoplifting or be recruited into shoplifting crime rings.

“It says you can issue it for a second or subsequent offense and it puts no limit on that. What we would prefer is a limit of three,” she said.

The bill passed its first committee overwhelmingly with lawmakers open to giving kids a second chance.

“If the members who are on this committee held to account for everything they did as children or juveniles, I have a sneaky suspicion that many of us would not be sitting here,” said Rep. Ross Spano (R-Riverview).

The proposal has the backing of the Florida Smart Justice Alliance and faith groups like the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Even lawmakers who supported the bill said it’s important that police have the ability to know in the field if a juvenile has been in the citation program already.