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Sarasota News Leader October 25, 2013 Page 91 OPERATION STOP WATCH NETS 17 ARRESTS AND 22 CRIMINAL CHARGES The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has announced that 17 arrests were made during Operation Stop Watch, a patrol-based project targeting criminal behavior in Laurel and Nokomis. able to quickly identify him as the primary suspect in several residential burglaries that occurred over the next few days," the release points out. "Because of the rapid deployment of resources he was located and re-arrested The Sheriff and his staff determined the Sept. 12 for Residential Burglary and False two-week effort in early September proved Imprisonment." effective, a news release says. Other phases of the operation included gathDuring the operation, the arrests involved ering information through field interviews 22 criminal charges, the release notes. "The with 130 subjects, documenting suspected arrested subjects had 541 prior felony and drug houses and monitoring them with visible misdemeanor charges combined," it adds. and covert surveillance, and conducting ran"More important than the physical arrests was dom checks with personnel from Probation the 68 percent drop in total Part 1 crimes," and Parole, the release adds. comparing statistics for the two-week period before Operation Stop Watch began to those Knight continued, "We stand with the hard-working citizens who refuse to tolerfor the same amount of time afterward. ate illegal drug sales and other crimes in Part 1 crimes are the more serious ones, such their community and remain committed to as aggravated assault, robbery and burglary. maintaining the ground that has been gained The operation included making contacts with during this operation." prolific offenders and those on probation "to ensure they knew there was an increased law enforcement presence," the release points out. Support from personnel in the Crime Analysis and Tactical units as well as the Intelligence Division allowed Patrol Division personnel to develop daily action plans for the specific areas, the release says. "Our Intelligence 2 Action philosophy identified subjects responsible for many of the crimes in the target area," said Sheriff Tom Knight in the release. "By increasing our presence, we were able to become familiar with these individuals and their associates and ultimately disrupt and displace illegal activity." One example involved suspect Ryan Lawrence, who was arrested for Vehicle Burglary on Sept. 3 and released on bond three days later, the release notes. As a result of "the constant flow of actionable intelligence, deputies were Simply put, Crime Stoppers relies upon the cooperation between the police the media and the community to provide a flow of information about crime and criminals. Call: (941) 366-TIPS (8477) Click: SarasotaCrimeStoppers.com Text "TIP109" plus your Text: message to CRIMES (274637) All submitted tips are secure and anonymous