Hillsborough means Tampa Bay, and Tampa Bay means Gasparilla. The pirate festival flotilla each winter is the single most concentrated BUI enforcement event in the region, and it is where a large share of the county’s BUI arrests happen in a single weekend. A boating under the influence charge here is the same offense as anywhere in Florida, section 327.35, but who stops you, where your case lands, and how it tends to resolve are local, and that is what this page is about.
Where BUI arrests happen in Hillsborough County
The arrests come off the busy water: Tampa Bay, the Hillsborough River through downtown, the water around Davis Islands, the Apollo Beach and Bahia Beach shoreline, and Cockroach Bay. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission makes more BUI arrests in this region than any other agency, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit runs the same water, and the United States Coast Guard partners with both. Patrols and arrests climb over the Fourth of July and Operation Dry Water, on holiday weekends, and on summer evenings as boats head back to the ramps and marinas.
During Gasparilla, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Sheriff’s Marine Unit, and the Coast Guard flood the bay, and BUI arrests spike. The same crowded, alcohol-heavy conditions that make the event fun also make a sober boater easy to misread, which is exactly why how the stop and the exercises were handled matters so much.
How a Hillsborough County BUI stop usually starts
Almost every one of these begins the same way. An officer pulls your boat for a safety, registration, or fisheries inspection, none of which needs any suspicion that you did something wrong, then writes up watery, glassy, bloodshot eyes and the smell of alcohol and turns the stop into a BUI investigation. A day in the Gulf sun gives many folks exactly those eyes. The inspection does not give the officer free rein to hold you and run the seated field sobriety exercises without independent reasonable suspicion, and where that line was crossed is a motion to suppress. The full picture of the stop, the exercises, and the breath and blood testing is on the main boating under the influence page.
Where a Hillsborough County BUI case is handled
A Hillsborough County BUI is prosecuted by the Hillsborough County State Attorney in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, at the George E. Edgecomb Courthouse in downtown Tampa. Because a BUI carries no driver-license suspension, there is no separate DHSMV formal review hearing running alongside it, the way there is in a DUI. The whole fight is the criminal case, which is good news, because it puts the focus where the defense is strongest: the stop, the exercises, and the testing.
Getting a first Hillsborough County BUI reduced or dropped
For a first BUI without an injury or a high reading, the realistic target is a reduction to careless operation of a vessel under section 327.33, which keeps the criminal conviction off your record, or a dismissal when the stop or the testing breaks down. The Thirteenth Judicial Circuit’s first-offense impaired-driving program, RIDR, is built around DUI and reduces a DUI to reckless driving. Whether the prosecutor will extend a comparable resolution to a BUI is a discretionary, case-by-case decision, which is why the stronger play is usually to press the suppression and proof problems first. The diversion and reduction page breaks down how the local programs work.
I started out as an Assistant Public Defender in Florida’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, in Tampa, and today I am one of six ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientists in Florida and an NHTSA-qualified field sobriety instructor. A BUI puts the stop, the exercises, and the testing all in play at once, which is the exact ground I work on every day. I can give you a straight read on whether your case is a suppression fight, a reduction to a boating infraction, or a trial. Learn more about my background.
Related: the main boating under the influence page, the Coast Guard and federal BUI, BUI in Pinellas, BUI in Pasco, and search and seizure.
Hillsborough County BUI questions
Will a Hillsborough County BUI suspend my driver license?
No. A BUI is prosecuted under chapter 327 of the Florida Statutes, which has no administrative driver-license suspension and no ignition interlock. Refusing the test brings a $500 civil penalty rather than a license suspension. The one caution is that a BUI conviction can still be counted as a prior to enhance a future DUI.
Where will my Hillsborough County BUI case be heard?
A Hillsborough County BUI is prosecuted in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit at the George E. Edgecomb Courthouse in downtown Tampa. Because there is no driver-license suspension tied to a BUI, there is no separate DHSMV formal review hearing, so the whole case is the criminal matter.
Can a first Hillsborough County BUI be reduced or dropped?
Often, yes. Many first-offense BUIs without an injury or a high reading are reduced to careless operation of a vessel under section 327.33, or dismissed when the stop, the detention, or the testing does not hold. Admission to any diversion-style resolution is decided by the prosecutor at sole discretion.
Who makes BUI arrests in Hillsborough County?
Most Hillsborough County BUI arrests involve the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit, with the United States Coast Guard working the same water. Many begin as a routine safety, registration, or fisheries inspection that the officer turns into a BUI investigation.
This page is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Boating under the influence is governed by section 327.35 and related sections of chapter 327, Florida Statutes, and the Coast Guard’s boarding authority and the federal boating-while-intoxicated penalties come from federal law, including 46 U.S.C. 2302 and 33 C.F.R. subpart 1.07. Charge reductions and program eligibility are decided by each prosecutor at sole discretion and can change at any time. Every case turns on its own facts, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
