Florida Statutes

Fla. Stat. § 933.17 (2025)

Exceeding authority in executing search warrant; penalty.

✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
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933.17 Exceeding authority in executing search warrant; penalty.Any officer who in executing a search warrant willfully exceeds his or her authority or exercises it with unnecessary severity, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
History.s. 17, ch. 9321, 1923; CGL 7519; s. 1162, ch. 71-136; s. 1575, ch. 97-102.

Arrestable Offenses under F.S. 933.17

M = misdemeanor · F = felony · degree: F=1st S=2nd T=3rd
§933.17PUBLIC ORDER CRIMESEXCEED AUTHORITY IN EXECUTE SEARCH WARRANTM · 2nd
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases (2 in the last 5 years), 1946–2026 · leading case: State v. Robinson, 565 So. 2d 730 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990).
State v. Robinson, 565 So. 2d 730 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). · cites it 2× “See § 933.17, Fla. Stat. (1989). We make this proposal because we believe that it will strengthen compliance with section 933.”
Johnson v. State, 27 So. 2d 276 (Fla. 1946). “, and that the said officers and agents of the State of Florida, in executing the said purported search warrant wilfully exceeded their’ authority, contrary to Section 933.17 F.S.A.”; (d) because the information “is based upon evidence obtained by virtue of a purported search…”
State of Florida v. Keith Alexander Times (Fla. 2026). · cites it 16× “§ 933.17, Fla. Stat. While section 933.17 purports to threaten officers with a punishment of up to sixty days in jail and up to a 0 fine, this does not cover all statutory knock-and-announce violations, as Florida has two knock-and-announce statutes.”
State of Florida v. Keith Alexander Times (Fla. 1st DCA 2024). · cites it 2× “”); see also § 933.17, Fla. Stat. (already providing a remedy for an officer who exceeds his or her authority while executing a search warrant).”
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.

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