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interviews with 30 people already certified as Florida law enforcement officers who were interested in joining the force. Many of them had military experience, too, he added. ANNUAL REPORT The Sheriff's Office's 2013 annual report, released a couple of weeks ago, says the department had 413 sworn law enforcement officers, 206 correctional officers and 380 civilians on the job last year. Of those, 628 were men and 335 were women. The agency hired 59 new people in 2013 to fill open posi- tions or to replace persons who were leaving or retiring, the report adds. While it notes the decrease in crime, it also says, "Traffic safety remains a top priority … and traffic enforcement is the main request from citizens as well." To that end, its officers wrote 34,415 traffic citations in 2013 and made 653 arrests for Driving Under the Influence. Regarding corrections, the report says the Sarasota County Jail processed 13,415 inmates in 2013, including those arrested by local police departments, the Florida Highway Patrol and other state and federal agencies. The average total number of inmates per quarter was 944. The declining jail population, county commis- sioners have pointed out, has enabled them to delay plans to construct a new jail; before Knight was elected, that project had a much higher priority. Along with its statistics regarding people, the office also reported on the work of its Animal Services division. Last year, officers in that part of the agency took in 3,386 dogs and cats, the majority of which were strays, the report notes. "While 905 animals were returned to their owners and another 534 were adopted," the report says, "the large and loving network of shelters and rescue groups" enabled another 927 pets to be transferred to other facilities. The report also offers information about the office's community outreach initiatives, point- ing out that the office donated $100,000 to a number of nonprofit organizations last year. The funds came from unclaimed property and forfeitures by criminals. Among the groups that benefited from those contributions were Do the Right Thing of Sarasota County, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Suncoast, All Faiths Food Bank and Operation Second Chance. % Sheriff Tom Knight receives a Siesta Key Association (SKA) T-shirt from then-SKA President Catherine Luckner (not shown) on March 1 as a show of appreciation from the neighborhood organization. File photo Sarasota News Leader May 2, 2014 Page 59