{"id":249016,"date":"2026-04-28T01:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/249016\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T01:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:38:07","slug":"martin-county-deputies-crack-down-on-illegal-e-bikes-after-resident-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/249016\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin County deputies crack down on illegal e-bikes after resident complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office says it is moving from warning riders and families about e-bike laws to actively enforcing them, citing a growing number of complaints and safety concerns across the county.<\/p>\n

“We have talked about this, and it has not gotten any better. In fact, it\u2019s gotten a lot worse,” said Sheriff John Budensiek<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post, the sheriff\u2019s office said deputies have spent months trying to educate riders and parents about the rules surrounding e-bike use<\/a> and the need for safe riding. But officials said those efforts have not stopped ongoing problems, especially involving juveniles.<\/p>\n

According to the sheriff\u2019s office, residents have continued reporting reckless and illegal behavior, including riders ignoring traffic laws, operating illegal e-bikes, riding in restricted areas, and harassing other people in the community. The agency said the complaints, along with multiple crashes involving young riders, prompted the shift from education to enforcement.<\/p>\n

“The worst ones we\u2019ve had in the last couple of weeks in Palm City were 12 years old, and we\u2019re talking about like running adults off the road in their cars, screaming, and cussing at them,” said the sheriff.<\/p>\n

Palm City resident Chris Powers told CBS12 news that kids on e-bikes have been wreaking havoc at The Patio.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a nuisance, being unruly, it\u2019s crazy,” said Powers. \u201cE-bikes coming down the street chasing cars, screaming at them, doing damage to the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office said its Traffic Unit, community policing deputies, and road patrol deputies are now carrying out targeted enforcement operations. Over the weekend, deputies made multiple stops, towed five illegal e-bikes, and notified parents, according to the post.<\/p>\n

“Parents know intuitively that we\u2019re not out there just a mess with kids. We have bigger or better things to do,” said Sheriff Budensiek. “We\u2019re busy in Martin County, but we don\u2019t wanna be scraping these kids up off the streets because they got killed on an e-bike.”<\/p>\n

Related: Treasure Coast hospitals see more e-bike injuries amid increased accidents<\/a><\/p>\n

Officials said those operations will continue.’<\/p>\n

Sheriff Budensiek told CBS12 News that e-bikes without pedals, that go over 28 mph and are over 750 watts, are not allowed on the roads or sidewalks.<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office urged parents to ensure their child\u2019s e-bike is legal and that riders follow traffic laws. It also warned that behavior that harasses or endangers others will not be tolerated.<\/p>\n

The agency said it plans to keep responding to community complaints with what it called decisive action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public expects us to go out there and fix a problem. It\u2019s a problem, and we\u2019re gonna fix it,” said the sheriff. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office says it is moving from warning riders and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-249016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}