Florida Statute 932.7062
“Penalty for noncompliance with reporting requirements”
What it means
Every Florida law enforcement agency that takes in or spends forfeiture money must account for it publicly. Section 932.7061 requires an annual report — due December 1 — to the Department of Law Enforcement, the agency's budget authority, and the Legislature's policy-analysis office, itemizing each forfeiture's type, approximate value, court case number, offense, disposition, and proceeds received or spent.
This section is the enforcement piece: an agency that fails to comply is subject to a $5,000 civil fine. FDLE submits substantial noncompliance to the Chief Financial Officer, who enforces the section — but an agency that substantially complies within 60 days of FDLE's written notification avoids the fine.
- Noncompliance with the s. 932.7061 reporting requirements draws a $5,000 civil fine.
- An agency that substantially complies within 60 days of FDLE's written notification is not fined.
- FDLE refers substantial noncompliance to the Chief Financial Officer, who is responsible for enforcement.
- The underlying annual report is due December 1 and itemizes every forfeiture's value, case number, offense, and disposition.
How it plays out
For families, the reporting regime is a research tool. When property vanished into a seizure years before a death — or during an estate — the s. 932.7061 reports and FDLE's compiled version are public records showing what an agency took, under what case number, and what became of it. We have used them to reconstruct what happened to assets nobody in the family could document. The fine in this section is why those records exist at all.
