“Hillsborough County has the highest conviction rate”
Recently obtained statistics for conviction of driving under the influence in the major counties in the Tampa Bay area. We considered Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties.
We thought we would ask three questions:
- First, which county has the highest conviction rate?
- Second, which county has the most DUI charges in the Bay Area?
- Third, which county dismissed the most DUI charges?
Which Tampa Bay Area county has the highest conviction rate?
As for which county has the highest conviction rate. In an election year, this is an important statistic. Hillsborough County has a hotly contested race for the state attorney’s office and has the highest DUI conviction rate at 79.6%. Pinellas County’s DUI conviction rate was very close at 79.3%. Pasco County brought up the rear with only a 62.1% conviction rate.
Which county has the most DUI charges in the Tampa Bay Area?
Hillsborough County had the highest number of DUI charges in 2015 with 4,111 charges. The Florida Highway Patrol had 652 charges in Hillsborough County. The Hillsborough County local police departments had 1722 and the Sheriff’s Office had 1731 .
Second in the number of bay area criminal cases for DUI was Pinellas County which had 3355 DUI charges. The total number of DUI charges for the Three Counties in this study was 8623.
In The Tampa Bay Area Which County Dismissed The Most DUI charges?
Pasco County Florida dismissed the most DUI charges. Nearly 1 in every 10 charges are dismissed. There was an average conviction rate of 77.15% for drivers charged with driving under the influence in the three counties we studied.
So on average, the odds of getting a DUI charge dismissed or reduced to a lesser charge is about one in four. We have included the raw data for you to study. That is available at this link for the Tampa Bay DUI statistics. We have also included a summary in the chart below.
What are your thoughts on conviction rates for DUI in the Tampa Bay area?
“the odds of getting a DUI charge dismissed or reduced to a lesser charge is about one in four”
Here are the data we used to calculate Tampa Bay DUI Convictions by the Numbers. The source of the data was https://services.flhsmv.gov/SpecialtyPlates/UniformTrafficCitationReport
Summary of Data in Tampa Bay DUI Convictions by the Numbers Study
| County | Population | DUI Charges |
DUI per capita |
Dismissed DUI Charges |
Percent charges dismissed |
Convictions | Conviction Rate |
| Hillsborough | 1,325,563 | 4111 | 0.31% | 90 | 2.19% | 3273 | 79.62% |
| Pasco | 487,588 | 1157 | 0.24% | 111 | 9.59% | 719 | 62.14% |
| Pinellas | 944,971 | 3355 | 0.36% | 25 | 0.75% | 2661 | 79.31% |
| Tri-County Total | 2,758,122 | 8623 | 0.31% | 226 | 2.62% | 6653 | 77.15% |
Complete Data Used in this Driving Under the Influence Study
To estimate your Breath Alcohol Concentration, use this.