City Of Sanibel Police Releases Sanibel Crime & Traffic Statistics For 2015
The City Of Sanibel Police Department issued the following news release.
Staff has completed an analysis of the reports taken by the Sanibel Police Department during 2015. The analysis includes all calls for service and crime trends within the City.
The most critical trends within the statistics tracked by the Sanibel Police Department are found in the Federal reportable crimes (UCR). These crimes decreased approximately 10%, from 125 in 2014 to 112 in 2015. Within the Federal reportable crimes, the noteworthy statistics for 2015 was the 24 % decrease in the report of thefts and a 25% decrease in reported burglaries. The most concerning statistic observed is the significant increase in assaults. Assaults went from 17 in 2014 to 27 in 2015, an increase of 60%. The increase is significant and this trend has been observed over the past seven years.
The crimes category includes all non UCR reported crimes, such as trespass, drug violations, DUI, fraud, criminal traffic violations, criminal mischief, and harassment. The crimes category also includes City ordinance violations and criminal citations. The total number of crimes reported in 2015 was down 8% from 559 in 2014 to 514 in 2015.
Also, the number of accidents increased 15% from 197 in 2014 to 228 in 2015 and remains consistent with traffic crash numbers from the historical period 2005-2014. Additionally, staff tracks ordinance violations. This statistic gives another barometer for evaluating violation trends and helps guide staff deployment. The ordinance violations have decreased from 423 in 2014 to 379 in 2015. The top ten ordinance violations observed were; noise violations (67), roadside parking (55), dogs at large (40), live shelling (27), overnight camping (23), furniture on the beach (23), fireworks (20), marine – idle speed (17), tour bus (16) and fire on the beach (14).
The residency of those arrested on Sanibel in 2015 remains similar to past years with 25% of those arrested as Sanibel residents, 57% of those arrested were from other areas in Lee County (non-Sanibel), 7% of those arrested were from other locations in Florida, and 11% were from all other states and countries.
DUI and drug arrests for 2015 are trending higher over the past five years from 2010- 2014. Staff believes this is due to focused traffic enforcement to reduce speeding.
In the past year, the Sanibel Police Department has experienced a 31% increase in total calls for service; from 21606 in 2014 to 28346 in 2015. The calls for service statistic includes every criminal report, ordinance violation, arrest, call for service and proactive area check completed by the Police Department. Proactive area checks are initiated to prevent criminal acts from occurring in higher risk areas, such as the fishing pier, beach accesses, business zones, and speed detection details. This breaks the trend we have observed over the past five years. This is primarily due to an increase of self-initiated area checks, radar details and traffic enforcement due to the road patrol at full staffing levels.
The final analysis of the 2015 data continues to show positive trends regarding Federal reportable crimes which decreased approximately 10%, from 125 in 2014 to 112 in 2015. The noteworthy statistics were a 24 % decrease in the report of thefts, a 25% decrease in reported burglaries and a 31% increase of total calls. The most concerning statistic observed is the significant increase in assaults. Assaults went from 17 in 2014 to 27 in 2015, an increase of 60%. Analysis shows that 48% of the assaults were domestics and 37% were from spontaneous interactions. Four of the assaults were the result of activities of one perpetrator at locations on or around Island Inn Road and the perpetrator was arrested for the offenses. Proactive initiatives have resulted in a 20% increase of traffic citations.
The Police Department continues to encourage crime prevention and active shooter awareness through education and press releases. In conclusion, this crime analysis is utilized to establish Department priorities and staff deployment. The Sanibel Police Department is committed to working toward keeping Sanibel a safe community to live, work and visit.”
For more information, please see City Of Sanibel.
