Atlantic Beach police say 30,000 calls handled in 2025; average emergency response 2.36 minutes

Chief Galilo presented a year-end review for the Atlantic Beach Police Department on July 20, saying the department is fully staffed and able to deploy targeted traffic, DUI and drug units.

"For 2025, we answered about 30,000 calls for service," Chief Galilo said, and he reported the department took in 2,262 911 calls and made 507 arrests, 119 of which were DUIs. He added that the department wrote 7,422 traffic citations in 2025 and that the average response time to emergency calls was 2.36 minutes.

Galilo credited full staffing (reached in 2023) with enabling the department to reassign officers into specialized units and to give officers rotational assignments in investigative units for career development. Commissioners asked whether intensified traffic enforcement had crowded out other duties; the chief said being fully staffed allowed the department to maintain other core services while placing officers into targeted enforcement roles.

In response to questions about electric bicycles and related crashes, the chief said the department had seen a small increase in bicycle- and e-bike-related crashes and citations but that overall trends remained manageable.

The city manager said police staffing and equipment needs (pension and personnel cost increases, radios, tasers and vehicles) will be factored into the department's budget request for the coming year.

Next steps: staff will publish the police annual statistics and related budget material on the city budget portal.