Mayor D.C. Reeves said the focus on reducing noise violations in downtown Pensacola reaped several citations and arrests over the first weekend of the off-duty officers enforcing the ordinance.
The breakdown included 25 exhaust violations, six loud music noise violations, and one drifting/stunt driving citation. Four arrests were made—one had an outstanding felony warrant from Escambia County, two unregistered vehicles, and one habitual driving with a suspended license. Also, three warnings were handed out.
“The data points show that we’ve got an issue,” Mayor Reeves said. “I appreciate our ramped-up enforcement and DIB’s partnership with it. I think this is yet another element of the ecosystem of a fast-growing downtown.”
The mayor mentioned that Pensacola International Airport set a record with 11,600 passengers on Sunday and then exceeded it on Monday with over 12,000.
“The wait times average around six and a half minutes, as measured by TSA, and a maximum of 13 minutes,” he said. “I don’t know that we’ll set the record every day, but we continue to stay busy. We expect it to increase rapidly as we get into the summer season.”
He expressed appreciation for the Jacksonville TSA office TSA. “They continue to keep us updated on what they’re doing. They notified us on Monday that they’ve got seven new TSA agents trained who are not part of that force that came in. We are ramping up staffing with four ready to go, and three will need a little more training.”
The recent residential fire on Marcus Drive killed one person. The house did not have a smoke alarm. He reminded residents that the Pensacola Fire Stations has free smoke alarms and will install them at no charge.