South Florida lawmaker files domestic violence bill targeting repeat offenders

Shira Moolten, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Nov 1, 2025

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A South Florida lawmaker has filed what she is calling a major domestic violence reform bill that would enhance accountability for repeat offenders and offer more protections for victims beyond restraining orders, including GPS monitoring.

Palm Beach County state Rep. Debra Tendrich, the sponsor and a survivor of domestic violence herself, announced the bill’s filing at a news conference Friday at the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association headquarters in West Palm Beach, surrounded by domestic violence survivors, advocates and law enforcement officers, many of them dressed in purple for the last day of Domestic Violence Awareness month.

While many other domestic violence bills have targeted specific issues, Tendrich said, no recent legislation has combined so many into one comprehensive bill.

“Florida has taken steps before and passed bills to strengthen domestic violence protections, but we have not seen major comprehensive reform in years,” Tendrich said. “And now is the moment for substantial change.”

The bill, HB 277, dubbed the “Domestic Emergency and Batterers Reform and Accountability Act,” targets a range of ongoing issues, including the failures of restraining orders to protect victims and the serial nature of abuse. Those issues have become particularly salient in the wake of multiple high-profile domestic violence cases, including the killing of a Tamarac woman, her father and a neighbor despite her active restraining order, and a Sun Sentinel investigation into an accused Parkland serial batterer who attacked multiple women while going through the court system.

Under the bill, judges would be required to order electronic monitoring following any case where a defendant is convicted of or pleads no contest to a domestic violence charge and if they meet one of the following criteria: “clear and convincing evidence that the defendant poses a continuing threat to the victim,” a previous violation of a restraining order, ” or evidence during a lethality assessment “of strangulation or other indications that warrant a higher level of concern for the well-being of the petitioner.”

Judges would also have the ability to order GPS monitoring under restraining orders, not just criminal cases.

“For too many abusers, restraining orders are nothing more than a piece of paper,” Tendrich said. “The GPS monitoring system I am proposing will save lives and add power to that paper.”

Abusers who violate restraining orders more than once would also face enhanced penalties under the legislation, regardless of whether the violation involves the same victim.

The idea for the bill emerged out of collaboration with law enforcement. Riviera Beach Police Major Josh Lewis said he had been going through calls for service when he noticed that domestic violence calls topped the list. He found that a “significant number” of homicides in the area stemmed from domestic violence as well, but many of the domestic violence cases themselves were not getting prosecuted.

“It became painfully clear that domestic violence is often the gateway to homicide,” Lewis said at Friday’s news conference. Eventually, he called Tendrich, and they began to work together on the bill.

The proposed legislation comes as domestic violence shelters continue to see growing numbers of calls, advocates say, many of which are more serious in nature, though it is difficult to distinguish whether more domestic violence is occurring or more victims are simply reporting it.

Among other provisions, HB 277 would also: require domestic violence and strangulation training for paramedics; increase the money the state provides to survivors who need to relocate away from their abuser; make it a crime to use animals as a means of coercive control; require law enforcement officers to turn on body cameras when responding to all domestic violence calls; and require officers to inform both victims and abusers that they have a right to follow up with the victim.

One of the speakers Friday was Jennie Carter, whose ex-husband killed himself and their two young children just days before Christmas after losing a custody battle during their divorce in 2006, according to police. She said she wished legislation like the proposed bill had been in place years ago.

“I live with fear,” Carter said. “Even after everything happened, I still live in fear, even though he is not here, but it’s what they are instilling in you. And I want them to be fearful of the consequences that they’re going to experience if they cross the line.”