Under Florida public records laws, which text messages are considered public records?

• A. Personal text messages unrelated to Sheriff's Office business
• B. Text messages pertaining to any Sheriff's Office business, non-transitory, following the same guidelines as emails
• C. Encrypted text messages between deputies
• D. Test messages about weather updates

Answer: (B)

Public records in Florida include text messages created or received by a Sheriff's Office employee in the course of official duties. If a text pertains to Sheriff’s Office business and is non-transitory—meaning it’s kept as part of the office’s records and not just fleeting chatter—it falls under the same public records rules and retention requirements as emails. This is why the best answer is that text messages about official business, kept as records, are public records.

Personal texts not connected to official business aren’t public records, and text messages about non-official topics like weather updates typically don’t become public records. If a deputy uses encryption, that doesn’t remove the public-records status of the content if it concerns official business; it may affect access methods, but the obligation to preserve and disclose appropriate records remains.