Okaloosa Sheriff's Department says it's on patrol in Destin and the numbers prove it

Every few years, the idea of Destin having its own police department comes up, mostly because of traffic concerns.

This past week at the Destin City Council meeting, John Frutiger of Holiday Isle was the latest to make that suggestion.

“What are we doing for a police department?” he asked.

If it’s the cost, Frutiger suggested the city make its money back by enforcing the law. 

“It’s getting out of hand … getting out of hand quick,” he said, noting people running stop signs and speeding. 

“I pay taxes and I’m over it. We need to do something about a police department here,” Frutiger said. 

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Frutiger noted that there seems to be money for property buy backs. “What about safety?” he said. 

“Tourists are getting rougher,” he said, because they know they can get away with it because there is no police presence. 

Capt. Jason Fulghum of the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department was at the meeting and explained how many deputies are in Destin. 

Five deputies per shift are assigned to the city. 

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“We break them down into districts based on numbers for call to service,” Fulghum said. 

There are two deputies in zone 25, which is everything on the west side of Airport Road. There are two more on the east side and one that roves around the city, he said. 

They also have a community resource deputy that “focuses on problem areas … anything that is spiking,” which could be traffic to retail thefts, Fulghum said. 

The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office divides the county into four patrol districts. District 3, also known as the East District, consists of the area from Duke Field in the north to nine miles out into the Gulf of Mexico in the south, and from the Brooks Bridge in the west to the Walton County line in the east.  

Between April 17, 2022, and April 17 this year, the Sheriff’s Office conducted 8,354 traffic stops. Of the 8,354 traffic stops, 7,681 of these stops were conducted in the East District. Of the 7,681 traffic stops in the East District, 5,553 of the stops were conducted within Destin city limits.

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“Ya’ll are getting 66% of the traffic enforcement that takes place in Okaloosa County,” Fulghum said. 

“Not to say there isn't a traffic problem here … there absolutely is,” Fulghum said. 

“That’s why we are applying for a grant for speed and aggressive driving, to get additional enforcement,” he said. 

The Sheriff’s Office has partnered with Destin to applied for a $50,000 Florida Department of Transportation grant. If approved, this grant will allow the Sheriff’s Office to pay overtime to deputies to perform approximately 1,960 hours of traffic enforcement in Destin, according to a news release from Tamara Young, Destin's public information manager.

Fulghum said they would “come out and do absolutely nothing but work traffic in Destin.”

 Here are some traffic related numbers from April 2022 to April 2023:

County wide 

Traffic stops - 8,354 

DUIs – 666 

District 3 

Traffic stops – 7,681 

DUIs – 340 

City of Destin 

Traffic stops – 5,553 

DUI’s - 186  

Gulf Shore Drive (Holiday Isle) 

Traffic stops - 82 

DUI’s - 6 

Traffic stops not on US 98 

District 3 – 4,764 

Destin – 3,638  

Approximately 66% of traffic enforcement by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office occurs in Destin. Approximately 65.5% of the traffic enforcement in the City of Destin takes place on roadways other than US 98.