When people get pulled over and they’re given a traffic ticket, they sometimes feel like they’ve been intentionally targeted or they’ve been given a ticket for a violation that everyone else is committing anyway. They don’t feel like it’s fair because, while they may have violated the law, they weren’t the only ones – but they feel like they were the only person who got a ticket.
But this certainly is not the case. The reality is that there are more than 2 million traffic tickets given out annually in Florida. In 2022, for example, the total was 2,637,069. That’s an average of 7,225 per day, over the course of the year.
Who is giving out these tickets?
Part of the reason for the high number of tickets is simply that there are a lot of different police organizations that have the authority to give them out. Here is the breakdown of the different branches of the police within the state:
- Total: 2,637,069
- Florida Highway Patrol: 503,837
- City Police Departments: 1,328,556
- Sheriff’s Departments: 728,539
- Other: 76,137
Another thing to keep in mind is that these are certainly not all tickets for speeding or other well-known offenses. Drivers in Florida can also be ticketed for things like improper passing, following too closely, careless driving, texting and driving and things of this nature. Some of these issues, such as texting and driving, have only been getting to be more common over the years. But others, such as seatbelt violations or speed limit violations, have been issues for decades.
What is clear is that there are going to be more than 2 million individuals who get tickets in Florida this year. They need to make sure they know exactly what legal steps to take.