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Sheriff’s Office: Escambia Seeing Reduction In Crime
March 12, 2011
A new proactive crime-fighting unit, more deputies on the street and a focus on gun related crimes has resulted in a reduction of crime in Escambia County.
One month after the implementation of these tactics as well as other tactics outlined in a strategic plan aimed at reducing violent crimes in Escambia County, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has seen an overall decrease in crime.
Since December of 2010, the Sheriff’s Office has seen a steady decrease in index crimes, which includes crimes against persons such as homicide, sex offenses, robbery and aggravated assault or battery, and property crimes such as burglary, larceny, and vehicle theft. Crimes against persons declined 13 percent from December 2010 to January 2011 and 20 percent from January 2011 to February 2011. Property crimes declined seven percent from December to January and six percent from January to February.
When compared to the previous year’s crime statistics, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office also saw a decrease in total index crimes including a 25 percent decrease in crimes against persons and a three percent decrease in property crimes. Arrests were up five percent in January compared to the previous year.
This trend continued in February with a continued reduction in total index crimes although there was a slight increase in property crimes of seven percent. Crimes against persons in February 2011 declined 41 percent from 166 crimes in February 2010 to 97 crimes in February 2011. Arrests were down by three percent compared to February 2010, which could be attributed to the reduction in criminal activity.
“The increase we are seeing in property crimes is mostly made up of larceny offenses, which can be economically driven. We take this information very seriously and hope that our community policing efforts and increases in our Neighborhood Watch Programs will assist us in reducing these numbers,” said Sheriff David Morgan.
This overall decline in crime in Escambia County can be attributed to the increase in the number of officers patrolling the community through both the Tactical Anti-crime Unit (TAC) and the Desk to Road Program. The Sheriff’s Office implemented the TAC Unit in September of 2010 and increasing it to a 14-person unit in November of 2010. This unit focuses on community policing efforts in high crime areas, street-level drug activity and violent crimes.
The Desk to Road program, implemented in January of 2011, requires officers assigned to administrative positions at the Sheriff’s Office to dedicate time during their workweek to patrolling the community and supplementing the patrol section. This is in addition to their normal work requirements and includes officers of all ranks.
Comments
18 Responses to “Sheriff’s Office: Escambia Seeing Reduction In Crime”
Thank you Sheriff Morgan and the people of
the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office for your
great work in reducing the crime rate.
Wow with !!! and ??? — adult discussion on either side of an issue is welcome, but this is not *that* law enforcement board. Be good.
Maybe one day you’ll have to call me Sheriff, but not yet. I’m just a deputy that supports what is right. You seem to support what is right for you. Now got ask Rex what he wants you to post as a reply. Oh, wait…maybe you are Rex. Pathetic.
to Wow????? Sheriff quit posting on this site!!!
I just watched WEAR 3 and they were talking about this. It looks like the residents and business owners agree with the Sheriff’s numbers. I guess your candidate didn’t win, WOW.
Morgan can Doctor those statistics to make him look good. He is all about looking good.
CRIMES ARE DOWN, BUT THERE ARE STILL QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUES. THE CODE ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO GET ON BOARD, REVIEW THE COMMUNITIES, FORCE CLEAN-UPS, INSTITUTE FINES. PEOPLE ARE BEGINNING TO JUNK THE YARDS WITH ABANDON VEHICLES, OVER GROWING WEEDS AND GRASS (JUNK PERIOD).
Have we forgotten about all the unsolved murder cases from last year? Lets get 12 months of data before we made any real judgements. Sounds all too political to me. This is also a time of the year when crime statistically is low. Give it another month with all the spring breakers coming in and the mobile posse invades the beaches. Too soon to tell. Let’s give it some time.
The desk to road program is a good idea. It’s good to see the $80-100k a year administrators out with the patrol deputies. It doesn’t say the amount of time they spend on the road. I hear it is 8 hours a week. May be wrong.
Crime is bad in the area I agree. Our legal system is way out of hand in rewarding and protecting the rights of criminls versus victims. We have dedicated LEO’s doing great work in the community. Like any thing else the governing administation ideas dictates how well those working on the road are perceived overall.
Are we doing this for crime reduction or for votes next re-election?
It is simply amazing to me how so many view a decrease in crime as a reason to complain.
Sure, there are problems still.. no one is saying there are not. The Sheriff has made progress… if nothing else we certainly see more officers out and about.
It is the ‘Desk, to road, to Waffle house program.
When you put it all in a pot and boil it down, here is what you have. Morgan pulled some deputies off of their patrol shifts to create this elite unit of proactive crime fighters. Then you have a little group of deputies messing with some blacks in some drug areas. The shifts that the deputies were pulled off of are now short-handed. Sheriff Lowman done it. McNesby done it, and now Sheriff Moron has done it. When you see deputies in the Molino area ask one if they are short handed. Dont take my word for it. It is all smoke and mirrors. He is robbing Peter to pay Paul.
The city of P’cola is being Robbed Multi Millions Dollars of taxpayers money that will be a burden for future generations for a socialized ballpark that was a Bait-n-Switch Scam from the beginning. This is a Crime that needs to be addressed.
Personally I think that is just a lot of hot air. I have read the news buddy and it
ain’t good. LOL
However, sheriff I have also seen ALL the officers running up and down the roads, and I have seen them with people pulled over a lot more than usual and I hope you are using probable cause and looking over their cars and person for drugs and drug equipment. I know you have found offenders and killers.
I do know your trying that is obvious, but 2 months or so, come on buddy
lets work even harder to get the drugs off the street. We are still having
killings, stabbings, rapes, aggravated purse snatchers, home invasions ,
shootings, murders.
IT’S NOT OVER BY A LONG SHOT.
THE FIGHT HAS JUST BEGAN…..
WORK HARDER SHERIFF, LOOK HARDER SHERIFF, BE SNEAKIER SHERIFF,
AND SWITCH YOUR OFFICERS BEATS SO THEIR NOT OVER LOOKING THEIR
FRIENDS AND HUNTING BUDDIES AND REMEMBER COUNTY EMPLOYEES
COUNT. NOBODY IS EXEMPT. Clean it up.
Stop counting the numbers and keep going.
GOOD WORK SO FAR SHERIFF AND LEO I HAVE NOTICED.
Outstanding!
Thanks to all our LEOs, and our Sheriff. Great job.
Anyway, let me finish my thought because I inadvertently submitted my first comment before I was finished.
One would expect that the extensive patrol would produce less crime; however, this was not the case. Are we seeing some other force at work and the agency is blowing its own horn? Either way, it is good to see that the sheriff is trying to do something about crime here now and is not waiting until the moments just before the coming election even though what the office is doing is not a new concept.
The 1973 Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment can be found at:
http://www.policefoundation.org/docs/kansas.html
Read it yourself and draw your own conclusions.
How do these figures compare to other communities’ crime rates? Are those also seeing a reduction in crime? If so, then what are those communities doing that is working. Remember these sheriff’s office crime figures are only those crimes known to the agency and recorded by reports, so before we jump off waving banners of how good these two programs are doing, there probably should be some type critical annalysis conducted to see if there really is a true impact or is there some other underlying cause. I have to think back to the Kansas City Experiment where three type of patrol were implemented. One such as the sheriff has done, an intensive patrol. A second where there is normal patrol, and the third where there was literlally no patrol at all, just officers who responded to calls for service.
Im all for this but 3 months of data is hardly enough reason to break out the champagne. If we would stop cutting the number of police it would be safer for all. Isn’t that what there data is showing?
Makes me wonder “is this just more of the same number fudging that Sheriff Morgan accused former Sheriff McNesby of doing”? Because from watching the news, it doesn’t seem like crime has slowed much at all.