Florida Statutes
Fla. Stat. § 870.04 (2025)
Specified officers to disperse riotous assembly.
✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
Find cases:
SyfertCases citing this section
FL-LEGleg.state.fl.us
JustiaFla. Statutes
CornellLII Search
CasesGoogle Scholar
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.
History.—ss. 1, 2, ch. 1637, 1868; RS 2409; GS 3242; RGS 5075; CGL 7177; s. 1, ch. 61-223; s. 1, ch. 61-237; s. 1, ch. 67-2203; s. 3, ch. 67-2207; ss. 20, 25, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 34, ch. 73-334; s. 1, ch. 77-174; s. 29, ch. 79-8; s. 477, ch. 94-356; s. 1399, ch. 97-102; s. 233, ch. 99-245; s. 30, ch. 2012-88; s. 16, ch. 2019-141.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 10
cases (4 in the last 5 years), 1961–2025 · leading case: Cleveland v. City of Miami, 263 So. 2d 573 (Fla. 1972).
Cleveland v. City of Miami, 263 So. 2d 573 (Fla. 1972). “, is defined in Section 870.04, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., as "any number of persons, whether armed or not, [who] are unlawfully, riotously or tumultuously assembled in any county, city or municipality.”
Dresner v. City of Tallahassee, 134 So. 2d 228 (Fla. 1961). “At the outset of the trial the appellants moved to dismiss the complaint with the contention that Section 870.04, Florida Statutes, as amended by Chapter 61-237, Laws of Florida 1961, F.”
Wayne Freeman v. Town of Eatonvillle FL, 225 F. App'x 775 (11th Cir. 2006). “” Fla. Stat. § 870.04 . And Eatonville Ordinance No.”
Mun. Court, City of Fort Lauderdale v. Patrick, 254 So. 2d 193 (Fla. 1971). “The City then refers to Fla.Stat. § 870.04, F.S.A. which places authorization to command dispersal of riotous assemblies in various peace officers who are named and also in “a mayor or commissioner”.”
Dresner v. City of Tallahassee, 375 U.S. 136 (1963). “61-237, Laws of 1961, (F. S. 870.04), (which, by reference adoption in a municipal ordinance, 2 is made an ordinance of the City of Tallahassee) is unconstitutional and void, either on its face or as it has been applied to the appellants in this case.”
City of Miami v. Cleveland, 250 So. 2d 298 (Fla. 3d DCA 1971). “05 must be read in connection with the duties imposed on the officers by § 870.04. Where it is declared by law that for certain action a person “shall be held guiltless and fully justified in law,” such action cannot be the basis of criminal or civil action.”
Raulerson v. State of Florida (Fla. 1st DCA 2025). “committed in the presence of the officer”); § 870.04, Fla. Stat. (listing various law enforcement officers together with a mayor, city commissioner, city council member, alderman, and city police officer, as “peace officers”).”
Christopher Krickovich v. State of Florida (Fla. 4th DCA 2022). “§ 870.04, Fla. Stat. (2018). 2The other officer’s conduct is the subject of the appeal in State v.”
People of Michigan v. Daniel Joseph Debono (Mich. Ct. App. 2023). “at 238-239, citing Fla Stat 870.04 and 870.05. Read together, the relevant sections of the Florida Statutes are nearly identical to MCL 750.”
Ratlieff v. City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida (S.D. Fla. 2023). “If you remain in the area, which was just described, regardless of your purpose for remaining, you will be in violation of Section 870.04. The following routes of dispersal are available: (give directions for evacuation routes).”
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.