Sarasota News Leader

03/29/2013

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Sarasota News Leader March 29, 2013 Page 23 "Proactive policing driven by our agency-wide • Aggravated assaults were down 15.4 per'Intelligence 2 Action' program is having a macent, from 448 in 2011 to 379 in 2012. jor impact on crime," said Knight in a news release. "Consistent information sharing helps • Simple assaults were down 5.97 percent, from 1,925 to 1,810. us develop quality intelligence, which allows us to target the biggest problems in our com- • Motor vehicle thefts declined 8.96 percent, munity and focus our energy on those who from 279 to 254. repeatedly commit these crimes." Among the specific types of crime that did rise Since Knight took office in January 2009, overyear-over-year was murder. The Sheriff's Ofall crime is down 21 percent, Part 1 crime is down 26 percent and DUI arrests are up 32 fice recorded nine cases in 2012, compared to percent, according to Sheriff's Office statis- seven in 2011. tics. During his presentation to the County Commission on March 20, Spitler noted that the intelligence-led policing staff has an office away from the main campus the Sheriff's Office occupies on Ringling Boulevard in downtown Sarasota. He added that while he could not reveal its location, he could say that seven sworn employees and six crime analysts are on that staff. When Knight addressed the County Commission about facilities needs on Jan. 8, he pointed out that the jail in downtown Sarasota is designed for 2,000 people, but the population had been hovering around 900 in recent weeks. The overall lower trends are continuing so far this year. The Sheriff's Office's February report shows Total Violent Crimes (including murder, robbery and aggravated assault) down 15.84 percent, while Total Nonviolent Crimes (burglary, larceny and motor vehicle thefts) are down 12.86 percent. Total arrests so far have declined 12.32 percent compared to the same period in 2012. Burglary cases have decreased 21.09 percent and larceny reports are down 7.53 percent compared to the figures for the first two months of 2012. However, the number of fraud cases is up 4.23 percent — from a total of 71 in January and He attributed that at least in part to the intel- February 2012 to 74 thus far this year. ligence-led policing efforts. To see the full 2012 report, visit www.SaraKnight was re-elected last year to his second sotaSheriff.org. Under the "Public Interest" term. heading at the top of the page, click on "Crime Among other statistics in the 2012 report are & Accident Statistics," then "Uniform Crime the following: Reporting Statistics, December 2012." %

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