ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — After the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) saw a spike in 911 calls out on St. Pete Beach, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri says they have found a solution.
In a meeting with the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) earlier this week, Gualtieri said ever since PSTA began charging fares on October 1 for riding the SunRunner, the agency has received far fewer calls for assistance in St. Pete Beach.
“Problem solved. Implementing the fare fixed it, it worked,” he said to the board. “It’s what we predicted was the problem and what we predicted the solution would be.”
According to statistics shared by Gualtieri, 330 complaints were called in from March 1, 2023 to October 31, 2023 by the St. Pete Beach main access point. During the same time period in 2022, before the SunRunner launched, the agency received 41 complaints for the same area.
PCSO sheriff Bob Gualtieri says they saw a huge spike in 911 calls in St. Pete Beach when SunRunner was free. Now that fares are in place, he says it’s ’problem solved’.
— Angie Angers (@angie_angers) December 9, 2023
Sheriff says PCSO had 41 calls from March-October in 2022, and 330 for the same period in 2023 @BN9 pic.twitter.com/1IgmuMpP43
In September 2023, the agency received 84 calls for service. In October, following the fare implementation, Gualtieri says they received just 2.
“As soon as the fare was put in place, we saw a drastic improvement. We don’t get calls anymore, we don’t get complaints,” he said. “We don’t get citizens concerned. Now it’s back to where it was. Now it’s an acceptable level, it’s hit-or-miss and you get a few people here or there.”
Gualtieri says while he was pushing for the fares to begin before October 1, he was glad to see PSTA and other partner agencies were willing to work collaboratively.
He estimates PCSO spent an additional $10,000 each week to add patrols to St. Pete Beach to accommodate the spike in calls.