ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office is intensifying traffic enforcement this summer, deploying additional deputies and launching a new targeting initiative aimed at reducing speeding and reckless driving across the county.
Sheriff Richard Del Toro said traffic is the top concern among residents and described the crackdown as a quality of life issue.
WATCH BELOW: Sheriff cracks down on speeding this summer
"This is a quality of life issue," Del Toro said.
"I have a family that drives on these roadways. I care about my loved ones. I care about everyone else's loved ones. I want to make this a safer community," Del Toro said.
Residents say the problem is hard to miss. Ashley, a driver in St. Lucie County, described what she sees on local roads.
"It's insane," Ashley said. "Driving is reckless. Nobody slows down."
Jessica, another local driver, echoed those concerns.
"They're just careless. They cut you off," Jessica said.
Del Toro is using extra deputies from the sheriff's school resource division to boost enforcement while the school year is on break. He is also placing top-performing deputies in areas of concern.
Deputies Christopher Rodrigues and Cheyenne Benning are among those targeting high-problem corridors, including Midway Road, U.S. Highway 1 and Indian River Drive.
"We see a lot of excessive speeding in St. Lucie County," Benning said. "Most recently, I had someone pass me on I-95 doing 105 mph"
Rodrigues described what he has encountered on those same roads.
"I got a girl yesterday doing 72," Rodrigues said, referring to Midway Road. "My top speed on U.S. 1 is 98 (mph)."
"Indian River Drive, of course, is 25 miles an hour. My top speed on there 73 (mph)," Rodrigues said.
The results of the crackdown are already adding up. In the past four weeks, deputies conducted 1,162 traffic stops, wrote 470 citations and issued 1,728 written warnings.
The enforcement push is part of a broader strategy Del Toro put in place when he took office. He eliminated the agency's dedicated traffic unit and made traffic enforcement the responsibility of every deputy. Since 2025, the sheriff's office has issued more than 26,000 citations — a 155% increase.
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