Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/235968
Sarasota News Leader January 3, 2014 intelligence is gathered and gleaned to locate crime "hot spots." Undercover officers then are assigned to gather more intelligence in those areas and begin building cases against violators. On June 11, the Police Department's narcotics squad made 25 arrests in an area defined as a drug market hot spot. Six of the arrestees did not have a criminal record for violent crimes or gun offenses, nor had any of them served a lengthy prison sentence. The six were offered "deferred prosecution" if they would participate in rehabilitation, and all of them accepted the offer. If the individuals stay out of trouble, it is possible and even likely the charges will be dropped against them in the future. Improved connectivity can be created without a radically new interchange design at University Parkway and more lanes on Fruitville Road: That is the argument Sarasota County staff members plan to make when they meet at the end of this month with the District Page 102 One secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). During an Oct. 9 discussion of a revised road proposal for the Schroeder-Manatee Ranch (SMR) Villages of Lakewood Ranch South, Jonathan B. Paul, the county's interim transportation planning director, says he hopes to convince FDOT officials that a new overpass across Interstate 75 and Cattlemen Road would be preferable to the "diverging diamond" interchange plan FDOT is espousing for I-75 and University Parkway. During an April 16 presentation to both the Sarasota and Manatee county commissions, FDOT consultants discussed the interchange proposal. A memo from Sarasota County Engineer James K. Harriott Jr. to the board explained it would encompass two special-use lanes that would run both northbound and southbound, along with three general-use lanes in each direction, a 64-foot-wide median and auxiliary lanes in both directions. "The basic concept of the diverging diamond interchange is to switch the eastbound and westbound lanes Sarasota County's interim transportation planning director is hopeful he can convince state transportation officials of the merit of an alternative to a 'diverging diamond' proposal to handle University Parkway traffic in the future. Image courtesy Sarasota County