Our Plan
A Florida State Defense Force is already authorized in Florida Statutes Chapter 251. Therefore, with the exception of some fine-tuning, no further legislative action is needed from the Florida Legislature. From what we can tell, all that is needed for the SDF to become a reality is the Governor to call the SDF to action.
Since this is an election year, we do not expect any movement on this issue from Gov. Scott since he has not moved on this issue for the last 8 years. Therefore, it will be up to the next Governor to give birth the Florida SDF.
We need everyone possible to write their state representative and state senator and insist that the Florida SDF be restarted to help with disasters and other missions. We also need to write all of the gubernatorial candidates from all political parties on this issue and try to make it an election issue.
Florida needs a trained and ready force whose mission is disaster relief and related missions. The National Guard currently has this mission, but they are warfighters. They train for war and combat operations and they are good at what they do in this regard. But, just how much time is spent training in disaster or homeland security missions do they get?
Currently, with some exceptions, when a disaster or critical incident strikes many people want to volunteer to help but the state just cannot throw a bunch of untrained volunteers at an incident. They must be trained. They also must be fed and sheltered along with the thousands of citizens who had to evacuate to the shelters. Many times, these well meaning volunteers become an additional burden to the emergency managers because they were not planned for. I addition these volunteers come in a myriad of skill sets from no skills to trained professionals. They also come with various physical capabilities or limitations. Additionally, some also respond to disaster scenes with ill will in their hearts and they come to see just how much they can steal from the victims.
It would be much better to have a corps of trained and equipped volunteers, who have been vetted and background checks done. We will know exactly what skill sets each member can bring to bare to a particular incident.
Some of the specialties that a trained SDF can bring;
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Medical/Nursing
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Transportation
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Public Safety/Security/Traffic Control
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Engineers
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Communications
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Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT)
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Chaplains/Spiritual Support
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Public Health
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Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Counselors
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and more
Just as the Maryland and Texas State Guards have dedicated medical organizations, so can the Florida SDF. Florida can also have a cadre of trained security professionals to step in to provide security when the National Guard has been tasked elsewhere.
Below are links to the Florida House Of Representatives and the Florida Senate. Click on the logo and you will be taken to the list or Representatives and Senators
