The Ocala Police Department has conducted over 14,000 traffic stops through the first half of 2025, continuing a trend every two weeks of performing more 1,000.
During Tuesday’s Ocala City Council meeting, OPD Chief Mike Balken shared a brief update on the city’s traffic statistics to date.
As has been common throughout 2025, Balken says his officers once again outpaced their traffic stop figures from 2024 over the last two weeks.
Balken reported that a total of 1,093 traffic stops were conducted over the two-week period from June 16 to June 29.
During the meeting, Balken reported that officers have conducted stops “pretty equally throughout the city,” with a heat map showing a distribution across State Road 200, S Pine Avenue, Silver Springs Boulevard, and U.S. Highway 27, among other thoroughfares.
Traffic stops spread pretty equally throughout the city, with 1,093 stops or contacts made by our officers; we’ve had a busy, two-week period.
Last month, Balken reported a similar increase in traffic stops from June 2 to June 15, 2025, as compared with the previous year.
In total, through June 29, the department has conducted more than 14,090 traffic stops. Although that number does not represent the last day of the month and some days in April, it is a large increase over last year’s totals.
Have you noticed an increase in traffic stops across the city of Ocala? Share your opinions and experiences with us in a comment or, if you have more to say about the matter, write us a letter.