A triangular yellow sign marks this Jacksonville fire station as a safe haven for a mother to surrender her newborn baby anonymously. | Eric Prosswimmer, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department
Published on March 26, 2026 at 3:28 pm
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A Jacksonville City Council member wants 14 baby boxes placed at fire stations citywide to make it easier for people to surrender newborns through Florida’s Safe Haven law.
In April, council committees are expected to hear legislation filed by Beaches member Rory Diamond that would appropriate nearly $315,000 to the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department for the purchase and installation of one Safe Haven Baby Box in each council district.
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The boxes are advertised as a safe way for someone, 24 hours per day, to anonymously surrender an infant 30 days or younger. The process is allowed by a Florida statute passed in 2000.
Currently, people can surrender an infant at hospitals and fire stations. But Diamond says the boxes, which would be the first in Duval County, will allow people to maintain their privacy when making what can be a difficult decision.
“There hasn’t been, to my knowledge, an easy way where you can do it anonymously where you can simply place a baby,” Diamond told Jacksonville Today after a news conference Wednesday at City Hall.
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“You have to hand (the newborn) to a person. For some reason, that stigma seems to prevent some women from surrendering their infant,” Diamond said. “Instead, they’re leaving them in dumpsters or terrible situations, or just leaving them in front of a fire house where there’s nobody there. And this kind of removes that problem.”
Diamond said the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department is onboard with the proposal, and spoke with all 14 district council members to identify which fire stations should have a baby box. XXXXXXXXX
The boxes will be installed on the outside of the fire stations with a door publicly accessible. The boxes include alarms to notify fire department officials, climate controls and video monitoring.
JFRD personnel receive training along with their emergency medical service certifications on infant care. From there, the child is taken into the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families. Diamond says surrendered infants are typically adopted quickly.
The Indiana-based nonprofit Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc. is one of the only suppliers of the infant safety devices, so Diamond said the city’s purchase will be a single-source contract. XXXXXXXXX
According to the organization’s website, the nonprofit has baby boxes in 20 U.S. states and 13 sites in Florida.
The boxes have become a point of concern for a group of about 100 physicians and child welfare community. They wrote a letter to the security of US Health and Human Services and the U.S. Fire Administration citing the boxes’ lack regulation and claimign the units provide less than adequate protection for the newborn inside.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes maintains on its website that the units are tested and safe.
“The FDA has determined that the Safe Haven Baby Box does not qualify as a medical device and, therefore, does not require FDA approval,” Safe Haven says on its website. “Because our baby boxes are not commercially for sale, they do not require CSPC (Consumer Produce Safety Commission) regulation.”
Diamond said Thursday that city lawmakers reviewed all the positives and negatives on Safe Haven boxes before filing the bill and spoke directly with the organization.
“The positives quite far outweigh the people who are concerned that it’s not regulated by the FDA,” Diamond said. “The other option is leaving a kid in a dumpster.”
Safe Haven laws are ubiquitous in the U.S. As of 2008, all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico had enacted versions of the law, according to a March 2025 Florida House analysis of the state bill.
Since the law’s inception, the report shows 414 infants have been surrendered safely. According to the state, 65 infants what been “unsafely abandoned” in that same time period — 32 survived and 33 died.
In 2023, state Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, filed legislation to increase the age of an infant eligible for surrender from 23 days to 30 days. A companion House bill passed and was singed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Origins of Duval baby box bill
Diamond said that, if the bill passes, the 14 boxes could be installed and ready by the end of the summer.
He said the impetus for the bill was a conversation with Florida State Board of Education member and Duval County resident Esther Byrd. Diamond said it was Byrd who told him there was a lack of baby boxes in Jacksonville.
“I thought we had them already. I just thought that was something that existed,” Diamond said. “I wasn’t aware that there wasn’t an anonymous way to surrender an infant.”
Diamond, a Republican, has sponsored and supported legislation on City Council that aimed to locally ban funding for abortion services as recently as September 2025 during last year’s budget battle.
The bill has bipartisan support. Ordinance 2026-0186 is co-sponsored by Democrat Rahman Johnson. Diamond says he expects the legislation will pass unanimously.
The legislation could see a vote in council committees as early as April 6.
“Obviously, I’m pro-life. But I don’t think you can just be out there being against things,” Diamond told Jacksonville Today.
“You have to be for things. So here’s a way where we can proactively make it easier for a mom who’s just given birth or within 30 days of birth to do the right thing by their kid and not just dump it somewhere,” he said. “Put it somewhere safe. Frankly, I’m not here to judge them or ask questions. I just want to make sure the baby’s safe.”
