According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles 2005 crash statistics, Orange County is fourth in the state, by county, in the number of reported vehicle crashes. This ranking stands to remain constant through the coming years, unless an effort is made to have a direct impact on those that cause the crash. The Orange County Sheriff's Office Traffic Enforcement section is doing just that, “Making a Difference”, in the attitudes and behaviors in the motoring public. 

The Traffic Enforcement Section, reporting under the Special Operations Division, is comprised of four distinct units: 

• Motorcycle Unit
• Evening Traffic Unit
• DUI Center
• Parking Enforcement Unit

There are 34 sworn officers assigned to the motors unit, 14 civilians assigned to the DUI unit, one police service officer, one receptionist, one part-time parking enforcement supervisor and one executive secretary (shared by aviation). There are also 15 deputies that cross train with the motors unit and three that cross train with the Evening Traffic Unit.

The Traffic Enforcement Section is the primary section assigned the mission of traffic enforcement. In addition to traffic enforcement activities the section is also responsible for many other duties and assignments:    

• School Zone coverage and enforcement
• Traffic complaint investigation
• DUI enforcement
• Holiday traffic enforcement
• Evacuation route coverage during hurricanes or disasters
• Dignitary escorts
• Funeral escorts

          Numerous speed enforcement details conducted:

• Memorial Weekend, four separate details were conducted=745 citations issued
• The “E.L.F.S” detail, Enforcing Limits and Fining Speeders=500 citations issued
• The “Grinch” detail=232 citations issued
• The Interstate 4 detail=240 citations issued

A total of 1755 hours were spent on these types of details. It should also be noted that each laser operation resulted in positive NATIONAL media coverage for both the agency and the unit.

 In order to accomplish the multiple missions assigned to the section, various vehicles and tactics were employed in 2006:   

• Marked Sheriff’s Motorcycles and Vehicles
• Unmarked vehicles
• Speed measuring devices, radars and lasers
• BAT mobile
• DUI check points
• Electronic citation writers

In 2006 the section issued 44% of the agency’s 101,620 (44,881) Uniform Traffic Citations:       

• 1,507 aggressive driving citations
•  87 of the  “.02” violations 
•  3,744 man-hours in traffic complaint areas
• working 2,294 complaints
•  1,874 hours enforcing the speed limit in school crossing zones.

         In addition, the Evening Traffic Unit alone made 468, or 33%, of the DUI arrests made by the entire agency. Combined with the rest of the unit, this number increased to 529(37%) total arrests. The section also made 505 physical arrests. This total includes misdemeanor, felony and warrant arrests.