Florida Highway Patrol

Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe Busted for DUI Just a Month Before Election

Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe found himself on the wrong side of the law this morning after getting busted for DUI. The arrest comes just a month before he's set to face off in a runoff election to keep his seat.A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was called out at 3:46 a.m. to investigate a car acciden ... More >>

FHP Trooper Who Pulled Over Miami Cop Fausto Lopez Claims She Was Harassed and Forced to Live Like a Hermit

More than 14 months after the saga of Fausto Lopez, the City of Miami police officer who was stopped by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper while speeding 120 mph down the Florida Turnpike to an off-duty job, is still causing embarrassment for the department.Now the trooper, Donna "Jane" Watts, has fil ... More >>

Florida Man Found Driving Around With Traffic Sign Embedded In His Skull

When Florida Highway Patrol officers pulled over an erratically swerving gray Camaro yesterday outside of St. Augustine, they figured they had a standard DUI on their hands. The driver, 63-year-old Leslie Richard Newton, had in fact been boozing and driving, the FHP says -- but that's not the main r ... More >>

Fausto Lopez, Infamous Speeding Cop, Fired by Miami Police

Fausto Lopez, the Miami police officer who was arrested by a Florida Highway Patrol office after speeding 120 mph on the Florida Turnpike, was fired by the City of Miami Police Department yesterday, according to CBS Miami. The termination comes after an internal probe found that Lopez had a long his ... More >>

Miami Zombie Witness Called Police 17 Minutes Before Cops Shot And Killed Rudy Eugene

Nash Perez was driving his kids home from a Sunday afternoon at the Miami Children's Museum when a curious sight made him tap his brakes. A few hundred feet ahead, about midway up the sharp hill 395 climbs near the Miami Herald, a naked man was gesturing angrily at the cars whizzing past. Perez call ... More >>

Florida Doctor Arrested for DUI, Spits Blood on Trooper, Goes Insane on Video

Dr. Zachary Bird, 41, was driving along a Central Florida road early Sunday morning, likely under the influence, when his car nearly sideswiped a Florida Highway Patrol captain's car. That's horrible enough, but it was Bird's outrageous actions caught on videotape after his arrest that are making ne ... More >>

Car Thief Caught While Pooping on the Side of I-95

If you're driving a stolen vehicle and are "not trying to go to jail," it's best to keep a low profile. You shouldn't do anything to draw attention yourself. You certainly shouldn't pull over and drop a number two on the side of one of Florida's busiest highways. Basically, don't be Mellisa Mansfiel ... More >>

Speeding Cop Fausto Lopez Sentenced to 100 Hours of Community Service

City of Miami police officer Fausto Lopez sure loves driving over 100 MPH, and now he'll have to do 100 hours of community service because of it. The officer who was pulled over and arrested by a Florida Highway Patrol officer in October in a dramatic stop caught on video was sentenced today, and, a ... More >>

Speeding Cop Fausto Lopez Could Avoid Jail Time

​Fausto Lopez, the city of Miami Police Officer who was pulled over by a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper for speeding 120 mph down the Florida Turnpike while off duty, could get a plea deal that would keep him out of jail. Lopez faces misdemeanor reckless driving charges. The maximum punishment for ... More >>

Five Worst Miami Cops of the Year: Rape Porn, Drunk Driving and A Horrible Chief

illustration by Pat Kinsella​As always, we'll start Riptide's annual tradition of counting down our list of the year's worst cops with a caveat: being a cop in the 305 is one of the toughest law enforcement gigs in the country and despite the weekly headlines here, most Dade cops do good work. As ... More >>

Miami's top news stories of 2011

Dude, where's my city? Miami wakes up with a pounding headache.

Fernando Villa, Miami-Dade Cop, Arrested After Passing Out Drunk in Squad Car

​It's hard to believe after ATV crashes and poop smeared squad cars, but Miami law enforcement hit a new low on Tuesday.That's when cops discovered off-duty Miami-Dade police officer Fernando Villa passed out in his own patrol car as it idled in an intersection in West Kendall.The worst part wasn' ... More >>

Miami Cops and FHP Troopers Try to Bury the Hatchet With A Softball Game

​How do you smooth over a cop-on-trooper feud that's escalated from high speed chases to retaliatory arrests to dumping five tons of human feces onto an official police vehicle?If you're the Miami Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol, you settle the simmering beef the old fashioned way ... More >>

Miami Cop Thomas Vokaty Disciplined for Retaliatory Stop of FHP Trooper

​The apparent ongoing fight between City of Miami Police officers and Florida Highway Patrol troopers is both sickening and pathetic. These are people paid with taxpayer money to protect Dade County. Not get into to pissing matches.The MPD has declared that no such rivalry exists, but just yesterd ... More >>

Ex-Mayoral Candidate Joe Sanchez's FHP Car Covered In Poop, War With Miami PD Suspected

Dade County is quickly devolving into a real life Spurbury, Vermont, the town in cult classic Super Troopers where war erupts between cool, hipster Highway Patrol officers and douchebag townie cops. Except instead of fighting over Canadian drug shipments, Miami police and Florida Highway Patrol troo ... More >>

Joe Sanchez's Car is Covered in Five Gallons of Feces in Gruesome Crime Photos

Joe Sanchez​When former mayoral candidate and commissioner Joe Sanchez announced this morning that his Florida Highway Patrol cruiser had been vandalized with human feces -- possibly the latest salvo in a raging between FHP and the Miami police -- we were picturing a liberally placed turd or two. ... More >>

Miami Cop Fausto Lopez's 120 MPH Turnpike Drive Caught On Video

via You Tube​How often does one grainy police video end up capturing the best and worst of local cops? One on side, there's Fausto Lopez -- a 35-year-old Miami police officer whose name immediately joins the bad cop pantheon of Adam Tavss, Derick Kuilan and Lavont Flanders after he led a Florida H ... More >>

Drunk Miami Man Steals BMW from Crash Scene on I-75

​Alligator Alley may be one of the country's most boring drives, unless, of course, you happen to be joy riding in a stolen BMW while drunk. That's what Miami resident Richard Jouel Abraham allegedly did yesterday, but now he's sitting in the slammer.

Pre-Paid Auto Club offers speeding insurance

95 Express: Pay more, get injured, wait in traffic

Alonzo Mourning Accused of Hit-and-Run Car Crash While Driving Porsche

​A Miami art school student is set to file a lawsuit against Alonzo Mourning claiming that the former Heat star crashed his Porsche into the student's car on the Julia Tuttle Causeway early Sunday morning before fleeing. Mourning did return to the scene, however, nearly an hour later in a separate ... More >>

Report: Rick Scott Pushed to Completely Eliminate Florida Highway Patrol

​Rick Scott wants to be known as the job creation governor, but almost seven months into office he's become more known for what he's destroyed, or tried to. After killing Florida's federally funded high-speed rail program, and reports that he attempted to do away with Citizens Property Insurance, ... More >>

Dolphins Great Bob Kuechenberg Busted for DUI

​Bob "Kooch" Kuechenberg, a Miami Dolphins legend who played for the unbeaten '72 team and racked up six Pro Bowl selections, has been busted for a DUI. The arrest comes after he side swiped another vehicle while trying to make a lane change on a stretch of I-95 in Broward County on Saturday night ... More >>

Top five Florida weed busts

Top Five Florida 420 Busts in 2010

​Marijuana production is at an all-time high in Florida and so are grow house busts. The local, state, and federal law enforcement weed eradication program has seen a 50 percent spike in the number of grow labs in less than four years. It's easy pickings for Johnny Law when you think about it. Gro ... More >>

Partridge Family Star David Cassidy Charged with DUI in South Florida

​I think a lot of people love David Cassidy, so what are they so afraid of? Maybe that he'll swerve into them in his white Mercedes while allegedly driving drunk. Yes, the former teen idol and Partridge Family star, now 60, was arrested in South Florida for driving drunk. When a Florida Highway Pa ... More >>

Udonis Haslem's Drug Charges Dropped

When the Miami Heat's Udonis Haslem was charged by the Florida Highway Patrol with a third degree felony of possessing more than 20 grams of marijuana things seemed shady. We went as far as to call it a "miscarriage of justice." Now, the State Attorney's Office has dropped all charges against the ho ... More >>

FHP Finds Driver Passed Out in SUV With a 100 Pounds of Marijuana

The actual vehicle was only slightly less conspicuous ​A Florida Road Ranger, one of those helpful services that give free assistance to highway motorists with car troubles, stopped to offer help last night to a driver who had pulled over near the median of the Palmetto Expressway. He found the dr ... More >>

Udonis Haslem's Pot Arrest Seems Like a Shady Miscarriage of Justice

​Normally when a sports star gets arrested on drug charges, it's the athlete who has to answer the hard questions. But following yesterday's arrest of Miami Heat fan favorite Udonis Haslem, it's the Florida Highway Patrol that seems to have some explaining to do.

Police Officer Arrested After $131K Roadside Heist

Miami-Dade Police officer John Villar has been arrested by his own force after he was charged with stealing $131,000 in a roadway robbery. Villar and two accomplices, including his cousin, targeted a man who had just won the money by betting on the NBA playoffs.Villar pulled the man over in an unmar ... More >>

Trooper Patrick Ambroise Killed in Car Fire After Being Hit by Teen Driver

Patrick Ambroise, a Florida Highway Patrol man was parked on the shoulder of the Florida Turnpike, most likely running a radar on traffic, when his patrol car was hit from behind by a Lexus. The collision sparked a fire in the patrol car, and the officer died on the scene. The accident happened arou ... More >>

Nightmare Cop

Four dead suspects and 92 complaints later, this guy is still on the beat.

Renegade Road

A woman perishes in a collision with an Indian leader's kin. Her family cries coverup.

Fie On You, Castle of Poop and Inconvenience

Axing the Property Tax

Potamkin’s homestead has a market value of $21 million.... Raul Masvidal owes $33,639 in taxes for his four-bedroom residence.

Cop Cyclone

Crash Dummies

Watch out where you walk in Miami

Teeth

No Foul, No Crackup

After the ’cane, things were safer than you thought

God Help Us

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of hip-hopness

Under Fire

She says he ordered her to sue a local resident, and then fired her. He says that's a lie. Being Key Biscayne police chief isn't the hassle-free job Michael Flaherty thought it would be.

Kulchur

Phishy friction between Seminoles and Miccosukees

The Main Drag

Welcome to the deadly, thrilling world of drag racing, Miami style. It's all about speed.

Cop Till You Drop

Beach officials hope a boatload of cops will control the half-million revelers expected on New Year's Eve

A Collision Course

Drunk drivers are getting away with it these days, thanks to peevish Miami-Dade cops

Juris Without Prudence

What litigant is willing to take Madonna, the CIA, and Governor Chiles to court? It's Alfredo F. de Castro, Miami's one-man suit factory.

Explosive Exclusive!

Former Miami airline executive Ricardo Samitier, Sr. (not his penis-enlarging son, Ricardo, Jr.) was the would-be mad bomber who rattled the Washington Post

Dark Passage

Which will kill you first: Commuting regularly across I-395 in the pitch blackness, or holding your breath until the DOT fixes the streetlights?

Stop! Thief! C-R-U-N-C-H!

The good old days of high-speed police chases (and the resulting mayhem) are about to end

I Said Pull Over, Lady!

Did cops beat the daylights out of her, or was schoolteacher Paula Redo merely the victim of "facial injuries when there was contact with the ground"?