VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – The Volusia County Council is set to vote on whether to create a domestic violence offender registry — a move that could make the county the first in Florida to establish such a database.
If approved, the registry would list people convicted of domestic violence offenses in Volusia County and be searchable by the public. The database would be fed directly from the Clerk of Court’s records and would not include any information about victims.
The concept is straightforward: if someone is entering a relationship or hiring a caretaker, they could search the database to see whether that person has a history of domestic violence convictions.
Buck James, CEO of the Volusia Domestic Abuse Council, said the scale of the problem in the county underscores the need for a tool like this.
“There’s about 4,000 incidents a year in Volusia County,” James said. “The only way that we’re going to turn those numbers down is to get more people who are aware of domestic violence and also have access to tools so that they can avoid people that do have a pattern of behavior.”
Under the current proposal, the registry would include individuals with two or more domestic violence convictions in Volusia County. The listed information would include a person’s name, date of birth, the offense, the offense date and a mugshot photo.
James said requiring two convictions provides an important legal foundation.
“With two convictions, there’s a pattern of behavior and with that you know it’s been through the courts, there’s been due process,” James said.
The registry was the idea of Volusia County Councilman Matt Reinhart, who modeled it after a similar registry in Tennessee. Reinhart said a personal experience drove his commitment to the issue.
“I had an incident in my own family where I had a family member who was assaulted and that amplified things,” Reinhart said.
Reinhart said he plans to push during Tuesday’s discussion to lower the threshold to just one conviction before the council votes, arguing a single conviction is sufficient to warrant a listing.