Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/235968
Sarasota News Leader January 3, 2014 Sarasota County staff leads the county commissioners on a walk through the future on March 20. Plans are offered to move the 26-year-old downtown Sheriff's Office to a "campus" near the interstate. In its place, a 10-story building is proposed to combine additional jail space, more courtrooms and a new "central energy plant" providing uninterruptable power. Courts Administrator Walt Smith sketches out a plan in which the new tower would become the center of criminal justice, while the Silvertooth Judicial Center across the street would focus on civil cases. The proposed new judicial tower would be 352,000 square feet. Using an estimate of $300 per square foot construction cost, the price tag would be $105 million. If that is added to a suggested $100 million for a new sheriff's campus on Cattlemen Road, the number rises to almost $205 million. Assuming the county population is 500,000, that works out to a per capita figure of $410. Page 31 the County Commission the county has seen the largest reduction in crime of any Florida county with a population higher than 100,000. According to 2010 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 34 of Florida's 67 counties have populations exceeding 100,000. The Sheriff's Office's annual report for 2012 shows crime dropped more than 16 percent that year compared to 2011. Major crimes, known as Part 1 Offenses in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Index, decreased nearly 18 percent. The number of violent crimes such as murder, robbery and aggravated assault, which account for part of the Total Index Offenses, was down nearly 16 percent. Burglary incidents declined more than 26 percent, and fraud cases dropped nearly 28 percent. Calls for service fell nearly 5 percent, and total arrests were down almost 4 percent. Sarasota County projects fare very well in competition with other ecosystem restoration plans submitted to a coalition of area estuary Bill Spitler, director of research and planning programs in the effort to determine fundfor the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, tells ing priorities for future money paid out by Procurement Official Ted Coyman seeks County Commission approval of the new Procurement Code in March. File photo