BOCA RATON, FL — Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Coral Springs police are among the law enforcement agencies running extra speed enforcement through Saturday as part of Operation Southern Slow Down, a regional weeklong traffic safety campaign. The push arrives days after a new state law significantly reduced how much each city keeps from every speeding ticket its officers write.
The enforcement runs from Monday, July 13 through Saturday, July 18. Officers in all three cities are focused on speeding and aggressive driving on major corridors, according to the three departments.
Operation Southern Slow Down is coordinated across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama, according to the Coral Springs Police Department. In Florida, the effort is being carried out with the Florida Department of Transportation, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, and the Florida Highway Patrol, according to the Delray Beach Police Department.
The Boca Raton Police Department said officers will conduct targeted speed enforcement citywide, with special attention to major corridors. The Delray Beach Police Department said the mobilization is timed to the Memorial Day to Labor Day period, which typically records some of the highest numbers of traffic-related deaths and serious injuries during the year.
In 2025, speeding killed more than 10,000 people nationwide, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data cited by the Coral Springs Police Department.
For readers curious about where speeding ticket money actually goes, the answer changed significantly this month. Most of a ticket does not stay with the city that issued it, and the city's cut just got smaller.
Florida's base fines for civil speeding citations are set by state law: $25 for 6 to 9 mph over, $100 for 10 to 14 mph over, $150 for 15 to 19 mph over, $175 for 20 to 29 mph over, and $250 for 30 mph or more over. The highest-speed category also triggers a mandatory court hearing, which can change the final assessment.
A driver in Palm Beach County typically pays about $206 for a standard 10 to 14 mph over citation, according to the county's citation cost schedule. The city where the violation occurred receives roughly $20.45 of that amount. The remainder covers court costs, state trust fund contributions, clerk fees and various surcharges.
The direct city share is calculated by first subtracting fixed statutory deductions from the base fine, then applying a percentage split to what remains. That percentage changed on July 1.
Chapter 2026-112, filed as HB 925 and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May, reduced the municipal share of that remainder from 50.8% to 28.2% for citations issued inside city limits. The 22.6 percentage points shifted from municipalities now go to the clerks' fine and forfeiture fund. The change creates an equal 28.2% split between the city and the clerk of court on every officer-issued civil speeding citation.
For a 10 to 14 mph over ticket, the city's cut dropped from about $36.83 to about $20.45. That is a reduction of roughly 44.5%. Similar percentage reductions apply across the other speeding categories, according to the statutory distribution schedule.
The Florida Bar reported the change was projected to shift about $8.1 million statewide from municipalities to clerks each year.
The revised split applies to ordinary officer-issued civil speeding citations. It does not apply to automated school-zone speed-camera notices, doubled school-zone or construction-zone fines, traffic-school elections, reduced court dispositions or dismissed citations. Actual annual revenue for each city would come from the Palm Beach County and Broward County clerks' monthly municipal disbursement records.
Operation Southern Slow Down runs through Saturday, July 18. Boca Raton and Delray Beach are in Palm Beach County. Coral Springs is in Broward County.
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