If a few Florida legislators have it their way, 911 calls could soon be confidential information.

A new piece of legislation is moving through the Florida House of Representatives that would exempt emergency 911 calls from the state's public records laws.

In essence under the bill, the 911 calls would only become public records as a transcript released 60 days after the 911 call is made.

There are people who say the public doesn't need to be able to hear 911 recordings any more than to see dead bodies from a car crash.

The 911 legislation brings back memories of another high profile case.

In 2001, Florida passed a law, known as the Earnhardt Family Protection Act. The law made autopsy photographs, video and audio recordings confidential.

Once again, the 911 proposal sets up a battle between first amendment rights and privacy.

We reached out to local law enforcement to hear their take on the issue.

In an email, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said there needs to be a compromise.

"I believe a good compromise would be to have the 911 caller agree to the release of the actual recording," said Gee. "I agree that many of these calls are very emotional and have the potential to cause more hurt to the affected family. We could agree to allow journalists to be able to listen to the actual recording, but not release it, which should alleviate any concerns over not uncovering flaws in the system."

Sheriff Gee is referring to Denise Amber Lee's abduction in January of 2008.

In that case, 911 calls helped expose the flaws with dispatching during the abduction in North Port.

Barbara Petersen, from the First Amendment Foundation, doesn't think think the exemption is necessary or justified as required by Florida's Constitution (Art. I, s. 24).

"Currently, Florida law protects the name of the person requesting services (the caller) and the person requiring services, so there is some privacy protection already in place," said Petersen.

"Closing access to 911 audio tapes will virtually shut down any ability to uncover flaws, etc. with the emergency response system and rather than closing access to this valuable tool, we should be focusing on the startling fact that there aren't statewide standards for training 911 dispatchers," said Petersen.