Florida’s Baker Act allows people who have mental illness and pose a substantial threat to themselves or others to be involuntarily committed for up to 72 hours.
In 2019, Florida law was changed to exclude dementia from being classified as a mental illness.
But a Pasco County man diagnosed with dementia ended up in a mental hospital for days under the Baker Act, based on a frustrated statement overheard and misquoted by a police officer.
“We’re gonna go to my car. You’re not under arrest. Come on,” a Zephyrhills Police patrol officer tells Harold Styer in body camera footage obtained by the I-Team.
“I don’t want to be in the car,” Harold protests.
“You don’t have a choice. Ok? We’re gonna walk,” she tells him.
Zephyrhills Police DepartmentThe footage came from an incident on Oct. 31, 2023, when Styer was taken into custody after he got lost and drove around Hillsborough and Pasco Counties for several hours.
Styer, who had been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, was not charged with any crime, but he was about to lose his freedom.