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Florida Statutes

Fla. Stat. § 856.031 (2025)

Arrest without warrant.

✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
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856.031 Arrest without warrant.—Any sheriff, police officer, or other law enforcement officer may arrest any suspected loiterer or prowler without a warrant in case delay in procuring one would probably enable such suspected loiterer or prowler to escape arrest.
History.—s. 2, ch. 72-133; s. 34, ch. 73-334; s. 1385, ch. 97-102.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1974–2021 · leading case: State v. Cortez, 705 So. 2d 676 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998).
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State v. Cortez, 705 So. 2d 676 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998). · cites it 4× “[3] The cases relied on by defendants do not cite or discuss section 856.031, Florida Statutes, which states: *679 856.”
J.M.C. v. State, 956 So. 2d 1235 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007). · cites it 5× “§ 856.031, Fla. Stat. (2005). The warrant-less arrest was authorized by section 856.”
Lu Jing v. State of Florida (Fla. 4th DCA 2021). · cites it 11× “It authorizes: Any sheriff, police officer, or other law enforcement officer may arrest any suspected loiterer or prowler without a warrant in case delay in procuring one would probably enable such suspected loiterer or prowler to escape arrest.”
Spears v. State, 302 So. 2d 805 (Fla. 2d DCA 1974). “before making the warrantless arrest under § 856.031 F.S. If he had not believed Spears’ story, he could have easily verified it by talking with Pam Sweeney before making the arrest and learned from her that Spears was lawfully on her property at her invitation.”
Cortez v. State, 731 So. 2d 1267 (Fla. 1999). · cites it 4× “The court below held that section 856.031, Florida Statutes (1997) authorizes the warrantless arrest of a suspected loiterer and prowler despite the fact the circumstances giving rise to the offense were committed outside the presence or observation of the arresting officer.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.

This Florida statute resource is curated by Graham Syfert, a Jacksonville, Florida criminal defense attorney (Florida Bar No. 39104). Attorney Syfert regularly handles Chapter 856 matters in the context of disorderly intoxication defense and represents clients throughout Northeast Florida. For legal consultation, call 904-383-7448.