Crime rate decreases in sheriff's territory - News Chief

Suzie Schottelkotte @southpolkscene

BARTOW – In the last five years, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office has whittled the number of burglaries in the county’s unincorporated areas nearly in half – from 2,693 to 1,475.

Larcenies, too, are on the wane, down 19.2 percent since in 2013 and 8.1 percent last year. So are murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and motor vehicle thefts. Called the index crimes, they’re the offenses law enforcement agencies monitor to assess the level of crime in a community, and there were fewer of them last year in unincorporated Polk County and cities where the PCSO is contracted as municipal law enforcement. Those cities comprise Eagle Lake, Frostproof, Fort Meade, Mulberry, Dundee and Polk City.

“We saw reductions in all of the index crimes,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. “We’re doing something right.”

Judd applauded his agency’s preliminary annual report for 2017 and commended his deputies and detectives for their efforts, which he said has brought the county’s crime to a 46-year low.

But he didn’t stop there.

“It’s all about partnerships,” he said, giving a nod to the community’s residents for stepping forward in the battle on crime.

“We have built trust with the community,” Judd said, “and when we trusted them, they trusted us back. They tell us about a lot of crime that has occurred, as long as they don’t have to get involved.”

Overall, the county’s crime rate in 2017 totaled 16.4, meaning an average 16 of every 1,000 residents were victimized by crime in the sheriff's office service territory. That’s 12.3 percent lower than the 18.7 per 1,000 crime rate the department posted in 2016. In that same year, the statewide crime rate totaled 27.4 per 1,000, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The crime rate is based on statistics for murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

Judd said his department’s high profile in social media and the traditional media has encouraged residents to come forward with crime reports. Still, he said, trust and the media are only part of the department’s four-pronged approach to crime prevention. There’s also an added sense of urgency in handling the information and constantly analyzing the agency’s crime data, which enables deputies to be vigilant to trends in the ever-changing crime hot spots across the county.

“There’s not one event that makes the difference,” Judd said. “It’s a combination, all working together.”

Dr. Carlos Romero, a resident of south Lakeland, said he’s witnessed the kind of response Judd described.

When his bicycle was stolen from his garage, Romero said, he wasn’t expecting much interest from law enforcement. At the time, Romero’s neighborhood was experiencing a rash of thefts.

“They began investigating it from the first time we knew the bike was gone,” he said. “I was surprised they jumped on it the way they did.”

He said the bike turned up on a buy-sell-trade website, and detectives went undercover to get the bike.

“We were lucky,” he said. “I got my bike back because the deputies stayed on it.”

The department’s preliminary annual report to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement also reflects a 21 percent drop in murders, from 14 to 11, and a dramatic reduction in the number of rapes, from 139 to 81. Judd celebrated the reductions, but was cautious not to take full credit for them.

“It is exceptionally difficult to police against that because typically they are crimes of passion or crimes of power,” he said. “It’s not something you can run a set of data on and make a difference, for the most part.”

Throughout the service territory, deputies worked 7,057 crimes last year, down 10.4 percent from the 7,880 logged in 2016.

FDLE compiles crime statistics for police agencies across the state annually, and each agency’s totals aren’t final until the state has certified them. However, adjustments to the preliminary figures rarely alter the certified totals.

County Commissioner Melony Bell said the preliminary totals reflect the county’s commitment to public safety.

“We spend a lot on law enforcement,” she said, “but every dime we spend is well spent. If we didn’t control crime, we wouldn’t be able to grow as a county. People coming here are looking for a place that’s safe, and these numbers show we are providing that.”

In the 2017-18 fiscal year, the Sheriff’s Office budget totals $158 million.

Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. Follow her on Twitter @southpolkscene.

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