Boca Raton Steps Up Traffic Enforcement, Issues 1,100 Citations and Warnings in Sweep

A Boca Raton police car. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Boca Raton police have been conducting a traffic safety sweep over the past two weeks that has yielded over 1,100 tickets and warnings, including 150 by mid-afternoon on a single day.

City Manager Mark Sohaney said at Tuesday night’s city council meeting that he began working with the police department’s acting chief and a group of traffic safety officers to increase enforcement on roadways in response to a large number of residents who had contacted the city with complaints of speeding and generally dangerous driving.

“In response to that, they’ve implemented some enhanced targeted enforcement efforts like additional traffic patrols, some data-driven hotspot enforcement, as well as some ‘wolf pack’ operations,” Sohaney said.

The “wolf pack” operations involve “multiple police officers from different agencies” that are saturating certain areas of the city, he said. The enforcement detail has also included FAU police. Though the stepped-up enforcement has been scattered at numerous hot spots around town, the department divulged publicly that many of the stops have occurred along the Glades Road corridor, which has been the subject of many public concerns.

“Over the last couple weeks, we’ve had over 800 traffic stops, and over 1,100 warnings and citations issued,” said Sohaney, on Tuesday night. “Just today, at 3 o’clock, I pulled the numbers for just this one day and we had 150 speeding tickets related to traffic stops.”

“My message to the residents is … we hear you,” he added. “Enforcement is increasing and the message, really, is to slow down in Boca Raton.”

Sohaney said the enforcement effort will continue, and the department plans on placing more detailed statistics on its results on the city’s website and its social media pages.