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. 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. Benning said the office sees a lot of excessive speeding in St. Lucie County. She recently had someone pass her on I-95 doing 105 mph. Rodrigues said he stopped a driver doing 72 mph on Midway Road and another doing 98 mph on U.S. Highway 1. On Indian River Drive, which has a 25 mph speed limit, his top stop was 73 mph.
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.
Del Toro said he has a family that drives on these roadways and wants to make St. Lucie County a safer community. Local residents described seeing careless driving on the roads. Ashley, a St. Lucie County resident, said the situation is insane and that nobody slows down. Jessica, another local driver, said drivers are careless and cut others off. Del Toro emphasized that he cares about his loved ones and everyone else's loved ones, stating he wants to make the community safer for all residents.