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length of time Florida license records are kept

1K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Buckeye 
#1 ·
I'm new to this forum, from Ohio. I previously had an out of state Florida CHL in 1999 ( I think) that I let expire in 2004 because I wasn't traveling as much to Florida anymore, at least at that time. Didn't get a Ohio CHL when it was first enacted due to the Ohio laws at the time were pretty worthless and in some ways worse than the previous law (that has since changed) and also I moved from the city to the country. I do however now wish to get an Ohio CHL, and one of the questions on the Ohio form is,

Have you previously applied in Ohio or any other state for a license to carry
and if so you are supposed to list the state and application date. Since I couldn't find my old Florida license, I called the Dept of Agriculture to see if I could obtain this info. They told me they no longer had their information on the computer. She couldn't say why, like some policy that they don't keep the info that long, etc. The only reason I can guess 1999 was because I found a renewal notice letter that said my license would expire in 04, and I assume the license was for 5 yrs at the time (?) Hopefully that was correct.
My concern is when I apply the local sheriff is going to try to contact Florida to find out info and won't be able to obtain any. This might make a difference if the Sheriff is concerned as to whether or not the license was revoked for cause (which it was not)

Does anybody know if there is some policy in Florida that info isn't kept after so long, or
whether or not the local Ohio Sheriff will be able to obtain the info needed to approve the application? If it's just a policy issue that might be less of an issue than the Agriculture dept merely telling them we have no info.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Welcome to FCC, Buckeye! Don't know the answer to your question but someone may be along shortly who does. In the meantime, you need you're own introduction thread so the members here can get to know you better! So to get that ball rolling, I would really like to suggest that you go to the Introduce Yourself section of The Front Office and start your very own introduction thread. With your own introduction thread, you'll find the rest of the FCC membership will chime in to properly welcome you to the forum, too! You'll soon find there's lots of great information and help to be had from the members here. :grin

Welcome again to the forum!
 
#3 ·
If you know your license number then you know what year you applied for it. My CWFL is "W 89xxxxx". So that means I applied in 1989. The license number generally gets assigned upon their initial processing of your application, so if you applied late in the year of 2015 you could have a "W 15xxxxx" even if the license actually issued in 2016.

Also, back in 1999 (the timeframe of your question) permits were indeed good for 5 years (I checked how the statute read in 1999), so if your renewal letter said the license would expire September 13, 2004, then you'd know the license issued September 13, 1999.

Hope that helps.
 
#4 ·
Yes, that helps a lot, thanks. Although I don't recall the lic #, it should be on my renewal form. I'm pretty sure the year of application was 1999, because it was late in 99 when it was issued. Also, when I called the Dept. of Ag. the lady asked for my SS#. If I call back and am able to give her my lic # she might be able to find it that way.

Something else I thought of when I read your reply, is that my renewal notice is proof that I once had a license, including the #, even though I can't find the license itself. It also implies that the license wasn't revoked or suspended, if the Sheriffs dept can't obtain the info from Florida, because why would I get a renewal notice if it had been revoked or suspended?
 
#6 ·
Your renewal form should have the license number on it. But I'm confused about the above a little. Do you need to prove that you once had a Florida license, or do they just want to know about any states you were previously licensed in? If the latter I would just answer the questions with the dates inferred from your renewal letter and be done with it. If they want proof that you had a license, your renewal letter should suffice.

As far as proving you weren't revoked, that's asking you to prove a negative which you cannot do. It's on them to contact DACS and if DACS has no record of you at all then there's no proof you were revoked either.
 
#7 ·
Your renewal form should have the license number on it. But I'm confused about the above a little. Do you need to prove that you once had a Florida license, or do they just want to know about any states you were previously licensed in? If the latter I would just answer the questions with the dates inferred from your renewal letter and be done with it. If they want proof that you had a license, your renewal letter should suffice.

As far as proving you weren't revoked, that's asking you to prove a negative which you cannot do. It's on them to contact DACS and if DACS has no record of you at all then there's no proof you were revoked either.
It's part of the background check process. They will contact Florida to find out if my license was revoked or suspended, and if so, why. If they request the info and none is available, they could potentially just approve it anyway, or they might not do anything until the time limit ends. (45 days) I doubt they can legally reject it, because they would have to show cause at a hearing, if requested. Not being able to get info isn't proof of suspension. If I didn't have the letter they could potentially claim I was lying about it I suppose, and reject it for that reason. Why anyone would lie about having it I have no idea, it doesn't help to get an OH permit. Now if someone had an out of state permit that was revoked, I could see someone lying about that and saying no to the question.
 
#5 ·
Florida records retention laws:
http://dos.myflorida.com/library-archives/records-management/general-records-schedules/
You'll notice that there is a section for "electronic records," so it's not forever.

Close to 30 years ago, I worked in a Florida regulatory agency and ran a licensing section in one of the divisions. In that particular division, the license (for individuals) we issued involved a FDLE & FBI background check via a fingerprint card. We followed these records retention laws meticulously, because the State Auditor General regularly reviewed our records destruction records. When the fingerprint cards returned from the FBI (back then, FDLE only ran them by name and DOB for state licensure purposes), we boxed the cards up and they were stored in a literal vault at the agency's off-site records storage center in Tallahassee. Every year we'd go to the vault and retrieve the boxes that had passed the records retention period, and witnessed the shredding of those cards. The applications were microfilmed, so in theory, they should still be around, as we stored the originals in the vault and made copies for distribution to our Bureau of Investigations field offices. We would on occasion receive a public records request for licensure information, and we'd redact the SSN and make copies for the requestor. We also received requests from LEAs pretty regularly, too, which we'd provide to them complete. <---- Even helped FDLE secure evidence leading to an arrest and conviction in a serial murder case, after conferring with our investigators (all former cops) and suggesting to FDLE that it might help their case to request a specific licensee's fingerprint card from my records inventory.

There were also "permits" (for businesses) issued by this division which were deemed "historic," so those were kept irrespective of the destruction schedule. We had permit application and issuance records back to the 1930s. I believe some of that permit-related stuff later was transferred to the Florida Department of State Archives to make them more accessible to researchers.
 
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