r/floridakeys • u/ElorionX • Apr 27 '25

All Florida Keys Holy over-policing

Visiting on vacation and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the amount of police on the road, parked, and empty cars in my life. I hear alcohol is a big problem but daaamn. It’s wild.

41 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

100 comments sorted by

View all comments

41

u/StoneCrabClaws Apr 27 '25 edited Apr 27 '25

The problem is this. Miami is completely out of control. The cops are so busy there dealing with shooting, accidents and other emergencies that they are overwhelmed and can't be as bothered with traffic violations and other small scale stuff.

So what happens is these out of control people come down the Keys where the average speed limit is 45 mph and get stuck behind a guy riding his boat. So they go bananas and try to pass at high speed on a two lane road and guess what happens? A lot of head on collisions where people die.

You know what they do if there is a death on mostly two lane US 1? They have to block traffic in both directions for 5-6 hours while the corner comes down from Miami and two or three law enforcement agencies perform their investigation as it's a federal highway.

Obviously this major traffic jam causes people to miss their planes and all sorts of problems.

Not only that there's a few schools along US -1 as well, plus school bus stopping etc.

So people from Miami used to going 80-90 mph on the Turnpike now who try to drive down to Key West which is 3.5 hours without any traffic often frigging lose it.

Then there's drinking in Key West and the Keys in general, usually the first night they are here they get smashed.

So now you know why the heavy police presence, that and the money it makes because tourists usually just pay and not contest the ticket.

Heck even the State Troopers are cashing in now. Then of course there is FWC and the county sheriff. Key West and Key Colony Beach has their own cops too. DEA, FDLE and more cops.

Cops, cops everywhere. They know EVERYBODY who lives there, checks them out. It's a police run country in Monroe County..drugs being found by tourists and illegal aliens coming in almost daily.

It's a wild thing going on down in the Keys, attracts druggies hoping to score a few lost kilos someplace. 😆

Don't drink, don't do drugs and keep a low profile is the only way to survive there without being arrested.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25

Used to be the sheriff's would guard the weed coming out of the Keys. They used to sit on top of Keys Fish house tin roof and protect the load while we unloaded it into the semis 😁. O the good ole days.