Basically, Florida property owners can invite police onto their properties in order to enforce laws that wouldn't normally get enforced on private property. For example, if someone with an expired tag is parking in your mini mall parking lot, you can ask/allow JSO to ticket the vehicle. When parking lot owners were upset about car meetups with dangerous driving, they invited JSO onto the properties, but the violations were probably for trespassing rather than private parking lot speeding.
When I was working at a retail store in college, a raced through the parking lot once in order to get to work on time. A mall security officer drove over to me in order to warn me, and I asked what he or other local police could really do. He told me to just be careful (and he was right). I generally was careful, but I'm pretty sure neither he nor local police had much say as to whether or not I was speeding in the mall lot. Or stopping at the stop sign.
Florida seems to allow some cooperation between police and property owners, but I'm still not sure it extends to parking lot rules like no stopping zones in front of buildings. To me, that's in the realm of private security asking nicely and then turning to JSO when I refuse to comply, not a heavy-handed police officer deciding he's also a parking lot cop. I mean, if I put a "Chevy Parking Only" sign in my driveway, is this officer going to show up to my house and ticket a friend who parks a Mercedes in the spot? I understand disabled parking spots because there's some kind of federal law about that, but I'm not sure my taxpayer money that goes to JSO is meant to provide officers patrolling in front of Walmart to keep the area clear of old-lady drop offs.
Mostly, it seems that private parking lot enforcement by JSO may take cops away from real crimes, but it's also about playing favorites. Homeless people have started fires behind some private businesses, meaning cops aren't stopping them from basically living there, but apparently other lots have cops enforcing sign that aren't even considered city code? And if the business owner is paying JSO extra for uniformed police to harass folks in a parking lot, I'm not sure that should really be available. He should have been forced to drive a golf cart and wear a uniform with a giant "Z" patch on the side. Keep in mind that I am not suggesting we all rebel against parking lot signs or JSO cops. I complied, and I suggest that if a police officer wants to patrol the local Chick fil a drive-thru, you follow his orders.
