Residents voiced their opinions during the Destin City Council Meeting held on June 20, 2023, in response to growing traffic-related issues and crime concerns.
The increase in visitors, along with reported traffic-related incidents during the summer, has some locals questioning why the city doesn’t have a larger police presence to account for this, as well as whether a dedicated police department in Destin is needed.
- In particular, the reported disregard for traffic laws specifically on Holiday Isle is an issue that locals are asking for more enforcement of.
“I met with the Sheriff [deputy] that patrol’s our area last week, and our stop signs are not even a recommendation anymore. People round them at 30 miles per hour,” said one Holiday Isle resident during the meeting. “It’s getting out of hand. So we need to do something about the police department here.”
Another Holiday Isle resident agreed that the situation is spiraling out of control and wants to see something needs to be done about it. “I see the people that roll that stop sign. It’s not five miles an hour, it’s 30 miles an hour. It’s ridiculous,” he said.
- He went on to say that it isn’t just tourists, but local residents on Holiday Isle who are speeding and running stop signs.
Council-member Teresa Hebert followed up, saying the City has received the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office’s proposed new budget and that there is an increase compared to last year. “We’ll be talking to them about what we are getting for the increase that’s coming with the new budget for them,” she said.
East District Captain Jason Fulghum, with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, explained that the City has five Deputies per shift that are assigned to the city of Destin (that the City pays for).
“We break them down into each district based on the numbers of calls to service that we have there,” he said. “So you have the two that are in Zone 25, which is basically everything on the west side of the airport. You have two that are out on the east side and then one that rolls around in the city.”
As for traffic enforcement, there is a Community Resource Deputy that focuses on problem areas, not just traffic enforcement, but any other type of issues that come up like retail theft or “anything that’s spiking,” according to Fulghum.
Fulghum says that 66% of the traffic enforcement in Okaloosa County does occur within the Destin city limits.
- In a one-year span from April 2022 to 2023, 7,681 out of the 8,354 county traffic stops were conducted in the district that Destin belongs to, of which, 5,553 of those were within the city limits.
That said, the OCSO is searching for ways to have a bigger presence and tackle the traffic concerns.
- “We’re applying for a grant for speed and aggressive driving…from the state to pay for additional enforcement,” he said. “It’ll be a $50,000 grant that’ll pay overtime for guys to come out and do absolutely nothing but work traffic within the city limits of Destin.”
In the meantime, the Community Resource Officer for Destin is working on having a larger presence in the area to address the concerns.
4 Responses
Some neighborhoods pay for off duty officers to patrol via the HOA. Has the Holiday Isle Neighborhood considered that option? Speed bumps? Just a thought.
We already pay $100k annually for security. We could eliminate the security, that essentially drives around taking pictures to report to the HOA, so we can get a fine because our trash can was in the wrong place…. eliminate that nonsense and pay off duty officers. I personally would feel more secure and we would have ACTUAL security, instead of trash can police.
Reduce speed limits from 30 mph on our dead end streets to 20 and stop signs at all corners would help
Things are not that bad. I live here and drive all day up and down gulf shore. Traffic is fine, stop signs are working. The complainers just need to find something to be happy about and stop the whining about every little thing in the neighborhood.