INVESTIGATES: First-time DUI arrests triple over the past 3 years in St. Johns County

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Action News Jax has found there are questions about how the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is cracking down on a certain type of crime.

There has been a significant spike in DUI arrests and records show many of them haven’t held water. Last year, there were more first-time DUI arrests in St. Johns County than any of the other counties in its judicial district.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

Getting actual drunk drivers off the street is critical, but a wrongful arrest, attorneys say, can ruin someone’s life and these numbers have raised some serious concerns.

The number of first-time DUI arrests in St. Johns County has tripled in the last three years. A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office says the jump is a reflection of Sheriff Rob Hardwick’s commitment to getting drunk drivers off the street and the DUI enforcement unit he created to do that.

For context, Volusia County has a population almost twice the size of St Johns, and yet the home of Daytona Beach had about half as many DUI arrests last year. (St. Johns: 1,084 / Volusia: 638)

With those growing numbers come growing concerns. Many of those arrests have been thrown out because the State Attorney’s Office couldn’t prosecute, didn’t have evidence to prove there was a crime, or the person simply wasn’t impaired.

INVESTIGATES: Broken promise properties; Jacksonville councilman calls for accountability

Attorney Lee Lockett represented one of those cases. The driver blew triple zeroes on the breathalyzer and tested negative for any substance. His case was thrown out by the state, but not until he’d paid to get bailed out of jail and hired Lockett to represent him.

“Why was this kid thrown in jail?” he asks. “Didn’t make any sense … and it was real tragic, because it turned his life upside down.”

INVESTIGATES: ‘I lost my mind:’ How a Jacksonville artist tattooed a 16-year-old without parent permission

And there are other cases. In one, a teenager was arrested after passing the breathalyzer test. In another, a woman was arrested for DUI when she wasn’t even in her car.

It raises some major concerns for drivers, Lockett said.

“What are we talking about when it comes to the quality of the investigation, the quality of the of the arrests? One might argue, when you have that many people being thrown in jail on DUI charges, maybe some of them shouldn’t have been,” he said.

Data pulled from the State Attorney’s Office shows that to be the case. In the last three and a half years, 112 first-time DUI arrests in St. Johns County have been dismissed. Almost all of them were made by the Sheriff’s Office.

Those cases weren’t pled down to a lesser charge, were not diverted in a pre-trial agreement, and not prosecuted in any way. Just dismissed.

According to Lockett, that is a rarity in DUI cases.

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]

“The DUI statute in Florida has more pages to it than the homicide statute,” he said, so if those charges “are just dropped outright … then that is unusual and it’s alarming.”

And it’s happening in St. Johns far more frequently than in surrounding counties. Action News Jax pulled the numbers. Out of all the circuit cases where no information was filed because the State Attorney’s Office knew it didn’t have a case, St Johns has twice as many dropped cases as all the other counties combined.

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

For context, this is only about 1.5% of those first-time DUI arrests, but for people like Lockett’s client, it matters.

“Even if the charges were dropped,” he said, “the fact that they were still arrested and booked into a jail facility will remain on their record forever.”

Action News Jax reached out to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office for a comment on the number of its cases that have been dropped. SJSO gave the following statement:

“A DUI investigation involves a standardized 3 phase process:

• Vehicle in motion (decision to stop the vehicle based on driving pattern observations)
• Personal contact (evaluate the driver’s physical appearance and condition)
• Pre-screening arrest (field sobriety testing, is there probable cause for arrest)

“Breath and chemical testing are supportive evidence used after the decision has been made to arrest, not used for probable cause:

• SJSO uses FDLE for chemical testing
• FDLE only tests for 5 drugs: Amphetamines, Benzodiazepines, Cocaine, Delt-9 THC, Opioids (heroin, fentanyl)
• Additional drug testing can be requested, but the investigator would need to know what the potential drug is (driver provides the information)
• FDLE does not test for Novel Impairing Psychoactive Substances (NIPS), only a couple agencies/private labs in Florida do

“Drug Recognition Experts (DRE)

• SJSO has 4 certified DREs
• A Drug Recognition Expert is an officer who has received specialized training and has been certified by the International Association of Chief’s of Police
• DREs are certified to evaluate if the subject is impaired; What drug category(s) is/are causing the impairment, If a medical condition is causing the impairment

“Impaired drivers represent a serious threat to the life and safety of persons using the streets and highways of St. Johns County:

• The only incentive deputies receive for DUI enforcement is the potential to save lives
• Drivers are arrested only if probable cause is established

“Stats of interest:

*SJSO DUI Unit was established in 2021

(St. Johns County)

2020 impaired driving crashes

25 serious injuries

16 fatalities

2021 impaired driving crashes

15 serious injuries

13 fatalities

2022 impaired driving crashes

11 serious injuries

14 fatalities

2023 impaired driving crashes

10 serious injuries

11 fatalities

2024 impaired driving crashes

8 serious injuries

2 fatalities

*source: Florida Traffic Safety Dashboard https://signal4analytics.com/”

Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.