Award for making most DUIs goes to Pasco trooper

The winner of the Hurd-Smith award for making most DUI arrests on the state is a Pasco County trooper Ronald Evans Jr who has made 238 DUI arrests in 2010.  Mr. Evans also won the award in 2009 for making 187 DUI arrests.

This is a significant increase of 27%  in a number of arrests a trooper has made in 2010. How this 27% increase in a number of arrests can be explained? On my opinion it’s either we got really much more dunk people driving under influence or perhaps Highway patrol has significantly increase the patrolling hours. After all, the increase is 27%!

Sgt. Steve Gaskins, spokesman for the FHP, said the reason for the high numbers isn’t because Pasco has an extreme amount of drunken drivers compared with other Florida counties. It’s just that these two troopers are good.

“Those guys have quite the initiative to do DUI enforcement,” Gaskins said. “As a result, the numbers are high.”

Statistics for people convicted of DUI in Pasco have remained relatively the same in recent years — 1,057 in 2007; 1,033 in 2008 and 1,042 in 2009. Numbers for 2010 were not available.

Hillsborough County has the highest number of DUI convictions in the state, with 4,038 in 2009, according to FHP statistics. Its numbers have declined slightly in recent years. Pinellas had a sharp decrease of 17 percent in 2009, with 2,223 convictions. Hernando has been steadily decreasing, going from 567 in 2007 to 486 in 2009.

Source: Tampa Bay