CLAY COUNTY – Not only did September give way to a new month last Wednesday, but law enforcement officials were given a new list of laws, spanning from protecting animals during natural disasters to rules for chasing a suspect, to penalties for driving and boating under the influence and separating mental health treatment and criminal justice for some inmates.

Florida Sen. Jennifer Bradley authored the “Tristan Murphy Act” to provide funding to better serve inmates with mental health issues instead of simply locking them up. It expands program grants to include training for 911 public safety telecommunicators, emergency medical technicians, law enforcement and court officials to establish misdemeanor or mental health diversion programs.

“The other bill that was very near and dear to my heart that also involved mental health was the Tristan Murphy Act,” Bradley said. “He was a schizophrenic, a young father in South Florida. He was off his meds, and he drove his truck into a retention pond. When he was clearly mentally ill, he found himself in the deep end of the criminal justice system.”

The senator said she hopes the bill will help separate people who need mental health care from being placed into the Department of Corrections.

Bradley said Murphy committed suicide in prison.

“There is a very real, dangerous intersection between the mentally ill and the criminal justice system, and it is a critical issue in our state,” she said.” We have a lot of folks who are mentally ill, and the state has a duty and a job in determining who needs to get treatment, who needs to be in [DOC].”

Here are some of the other legal changes:

• “Trooper’s Law,” which was named after a dog found chained to a fence by a Highway Patrol Deputy along Interstate 75 during Hurricane Milton. The law makes it a third-degree felony to restrain and abandon a dog during a natural disaster.

• Landlords must reveal flood information to tenants, or tenants are allowed to break leases by written notice. Additionally, developers must disclose flood information to condominium and mobile home buyers before closing.

• Law enforcement no longer must display its agency insignia when pursuing someone who is attempting to flee in certain circumstances.

• Penalties are increased for anyone found guilty of manslaughter while driving or boating under the influence.

• It is now a crime to buy, sell or use anything that hides a license plate, and penalties are increased for altering or covering up a license plate.

• New law adds another factor that can make a crime punishable by death if a victim was gathered with one or more people for a school activity, religious activity or public government meeting as an aggravating factor.

• A new law prohibits anyone from possessing lewd and lascivious depictions, including child pornography, exhibition of private body parts of a person without their consent, with the malicious intent to promote the sexual depiction of the identifiable person without their permission.

• Not knowing a child’s age or lying about a child’s age is not a defense when attempting to lure or entice them out of a building, home or vehicle for any reason other than a legal one.

• A new law establishes criminal penalties for anyone who tampers with, harasses or retaliates against a court official.

• Establishes penalties for unmanned aircraft and aircraft systems that are flown over “critical infrastructure facilities.”

• A new law creates mandatory minimum sentences for specified sexual offenses.

• Penalties were increased for anyone caught secretly installing a tracking device on another person’s property.

• Penalties were increased for anyone found guilty of assaulting a utility worker.

• A new law allows a defendant's recorded confession or admission to be used as evidence in trials involving severe human trafficking cases. Also, anyone convicted of severe human trafficking for sexual exploitation can be labeled as a sexual predator.