Outsourced effort targets out-of-state drivers who skip tolls

FORT MYERS, Fla. Lee County continues to outsource the fight against out-of-state drivers who blow past tollbooths.

The county recently renewed a contract with Law Enforcement Systems LLC to track down toll violators from outside Florida. About 20,500 out-of-state drivers failed to pay for trips across the county’s three toll bridges in 2016, adding up to $55,000 in lost revenue.

The one-year contract extension calls for the county to pay as much as $20,000 to Law Enforcement Systems, which uses photos of license plates from cameras at the tollbooths to find drivers and send them bills. The partnership between the county and the company dates to 2006.

The outsourced work is tedious — roughly 20 million total cars drove on the Sanibel Causeway, Cape Coral Bridge and the Midpoint Memorial Bridge in 2016.

Not all of them failed to pay the tolls for those bridges, but collection efforts against those who don’t have proven successful. The county typically recoups between 89 and 90 percent of lost tolls, Lee County Toll Facilities Operations Manager Susan Hopwood said.

Figures for the percentage of tolls recovered from out-of-state drivers weren’t available.