AFFRAYS; RIOTS; ROUTS; UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLIES

F.S. Ch. 870

in effect

F.S. 870.01 Affrays and riots.

(1) A person commits an affray if he or she engages, by mutual consent, in fighting with another person in a public place to the terror of the people. A person who commits an affray commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083. (2) A person commits a riot if he or she willfully participates in a violent public disturbance involving an assembly of three or more persons, acting with a common intent to assist each other in violent and disorderly conduct, resulting in: (a) Injury to another person; (b) Damage to property; or (c) Imminent danger of injury to another person or damage to property. A person who commits a riot commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084. (3) A person commits aggravated rioting if, in the course of committing a riot, he or she: (a) Participates with 25 or more other persons; (b) Causes great bodily harm to a person not participating in the riot; (c) Causes property damage in excess of $5,000; (d) Displays, uses, threatens to use, or attempts to use a deadly weapon; or (e) By force, or threat of force, endangers the safe movement of a vehicle traveling on a public street, highway, or road. A person who commits aggravated rioting commits a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084. (4) A person commits inciting a riot if he or she willfully incites another person to participate in a riot, resulting in a riot or imminent danger of a riot. A person who commits inciting a riot commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084. (5) A person commits aggravated inciting a riot if he or she: (a) Incites a riot resulting in great bodily harm to another person not participating in the riot; (b) Incites a riot resulting in property damage in excess of $5,000; or (c) Supplies a deadly weapon to another person or teaches another person to prepare a deadly weapon with intent that the deadly weapon be used in a riot for an unlawful purpose. A person who commits aggravated inciting a riot commits a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084. (6) Except for a violation of subsection (1), a person arrested for a violation of this section shall be held in custody until brought before the court for admittance to bail in accordance with chapter 903. (7) This section does not prohibit constitutionally protected activity such as a peaceful protest.

F.S. 870.02 Unlawful assemblies.

(1) If three or more persons meet together to commit a breach of the peace, or to do any other unlawful act, each of them commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083. (2) A person arrested for a violation of this section shall be held in custody until brought before the court for admittance to bail in accordance with chapter 903.

F.S. 870.04 Specified officers to disperse riotous assembly.

If any number of persons, whether armed or not, are unlawfully, riotously, or tumultuously assembled in any county, city, or municipality, the sheriff or the sheriff’s deputies, or the mayor, or any commissioner, council member, alderman, or police officer of the city or municipality, or any officer or member of the Florida Highway Patrol, or any officer or agent of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission or the Department of Environmental Protection, any beverage enforcement agent, any personnel or representatives of the Department of Law Enforcement or its successor, or any other peace officer, shall go among the persons so assembled, or as near to them as may be done with safety, and shall in the name of the state command all the persons so assembled immediately and peaceably to disperse. If such persons do not thereupon immediately and peaceably disperse, such officers shall command the assistance of all such persons in seizing, arresting, and securing such persons in custody. If any person present being so commanded to aid and assist in seizing and securing such rioter or persons so unlawfully assembled, or in suppressing such riot or unlawful assembly, refuses or neglects to obey such command, or, when required by such officers to depart from the place, refuses and neglects to do so, the person shall be deemed one of the rioters or persons unlawfully assembled, and may be prosecuted and punished accordingly.

F.S. 870.05 When killing excused.

If, by reason of the efforts made by any of said officers or by their direction to disperse such assembly, or to seize and secure the persons composing the same, who have refused to disperse, any such person or other person present is killed or wounded, the said officers and all persons acting by their order or under their direction, shall be held guiltless and fully justified in law; and if any of said officers or any person acting under or by their direction is killed or wounded, all persons so assembled and all other persons present who when commanded refused to aid and assist said officer shall be held answerable therefor.

F.S. 870.06 Unauthorized military organizations.

No body of persons, other than the regularly organized land and naval militia of this state, the troops of the United States, and the students of regularly chartered educational institutions where military science is a prescribed part of the course of instruction, shall associate themselves together as a military organization for drill or parade in public with firearms, in this state, without special license from the Governor for each occasion, and application for such license must be approved by the mayor and aldermen of the cities and towns where such organizations may propose to parade. Each person unlawfully engaging in the formation of such military organization, or participating in such drill or parade, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

F.S. 870.07 Affirmative defense in civil action; party convicted of riot.

(1) In a civil action for damages for personal injury, wrongful death, or property damage, it is an affirmative defense that such action arose from an injury or damage sustained by a participant acting in furtherance of a riot. The affirmative defense authorized by this section shall be established by evidence that the participant has been convicted of a riot or an aggravated riot prohibited under s. 870.01, or by proof of the commission of such crime by a preponderance of the evidence. (2) In a civil action in which a defendant raises an affirmative defense under this section, the court must, on motion by the defendant, stay the action during the pendency of a criminal action that forms the basis for the defense, unless the court finds that a conviction in the criminal action would not form a valid defense under this section.

F.S. 870.041 Preservation of the public peace by local authority.

In the event of overt acts of violence, or the imminent threat of such violence, within a county or municipality and the Governor has not declared a state of emergency to exist, local officers shall be empowered to declare such a state of emergency exists in accordance with the provisions of ss. 870.041-870.048.

F.S. 870.042 Designation of local authority.

(1) The sheriff of each of the several counties of this state, or such other county official having the duties of a sheriff in counties operating under home rule charter, by whatever name known, shall be empowered to declare that a state of emergency exists within the unincorporated areas of the county and to exercise the emergency powers conferred in ss. 870.041-870.047. (2) The governing body of any municipality within this state may designate by duly adopted ordinance a city official who shall be empowered to declare that a state of emergency exists within the boundaries of the municipality and to exercise the emergency powers conferred in ss. 870.041-870.047. The designated city official shall be either the mayor or chief of police or the person who performs the duties of a mayor or chief of police in such municipality. In the absence of a duly adopted ordinance so designating the official so to act, the chief of police of such municipality is designated as the city official to assume the duties and powers hereof.

F.S. 870.043 Declaration of emergency.

Whenever the sheriff or designated city official determines that there has been an act of violence or a flagrant and substantial defiance of, or resistance to, a lawful exercise of public authority and that, on account thereof, there is reason to believe that there exists a clear and present danger of a riot or other general public disorder, widespread disobedience of the law, and substantial injury to persons or to property, all of which constitute an imminent threat to public peace or order and to the general welfare of the jurisdiction affected or a part or parts thereof, he or she may declare that a state of emergency exists within that jurisdiction or any part or parts thereof.

F.S. 870.045 Discretionary emergency measures.

Whenever the public official declares that a state of emergency exists, pursuant to s. 870.043, he or she may order and promulgate all or any of the following emergency measures, in whole or in part, with such limitations and conditions as he or she may deem appropriate: (1) The establishment of curfews, including, but not limited to, the prohibition of or restrictions on pedestrian and vehicular movement, standing, and parking, except for the provision of designated essential services such as fire, police, and hospital services, including the transportation of patients thereto, utility emergency repairs, and emergency calls by physicians. (2) The prohibition of the sale or distribution of any alcoholic beverage, with or without the payment or a consideration therefor. (3) The prohibition of the possession on any person in a public place of any portable container containing any alcoholic beverage. (4) The closing of places of public assemblage with designated exceptions. (5) The prohibition of the sale or other transfer of possession, with or without consideration, of gasoline or any other flammable or combustible liquid altogether or except by delivery into a tank properly affixed to an operable motor-driven vehicle, bike, scooter, boat, or airplane and necessary for the propulsion thereof. (6) The prohibition of the possession in a public place of any portable container containing gasoline or any other flammable or combustible liquid. Any such emergency measure so ordered and promulgated shall be in effect during the period of said emergency in the area or areas for which the emergency has been declared.

F.S. 870.046 Filing and publication.

Any state of emergency or emergency measure declared or ordered and promulgated by virtue of the terms of ss. 870.041-870.045 shall, as promptly as practicable, be filed in the office of the municipal clerk or clerk of the circuit court and delivered to appropriate news media for publication and radio and television broadcast thereof. If practicable, such state of emergency declaration or emergency measure shall be published by other means such as by posting and loudspeakers.

F.S. 870.047 Duration and termination of emergency.

A state of emergency established under ss. 870.041-870.046 shall commence upon the declaration thereof by the public official and shall terminate at the end of a period of 72 consecutive hours thereafter unless, prior to the end of such 72-hour period, the public official, the Governor, county commission, or city council shall have terminated such state of emergency. Any extension of the 72-hour time limit must be accomplished by request from the public official and the concurrence of the county commission or city council by duly enacted ordinance or resolution in regular or special session.

F.S. 870.048 Violations.

Any violation of a provision of ss. 870.041-870.047 or of any emergency measure established pursuant thereto shall be a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

Source: FL Statutes (Official Site)URL: https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/Chapter870/AllFetched: 7/8/2026