![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Mike-Scott.jpg\" "\\"Mike")
<\/a>The 2012 Semi-Annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR) from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office reflects a continuation of the downward trend in committed crimes for\u00a0Lee County.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, non-violent crimes have been significantly reduced by 13 percent, while violent crimes fell one percent.\u00a0 The mid-year report shows an overall drop of 663\u00a0crimes,\u00a0an\u00a011.77 percent decline.<\/p>\n
The biggest dips in this reporting period are in the property crime categories of\u00a0residential and business burglaries and thefts.\u00a0\u00a0Thefts,\u00a0referenced as larceny in the six-month UCR,\u00a0went from\u00a03,152\u00a0last year to\u00a02,722 this year (-430), while residential burglaries plunged from 1,445\u00a0to\u00a01,184 (-261)\u00a0and business burglaries from\u00a0213\u00a0to\u00a0152 (-61).\u00a0\u00a0 “As 2011 came to a close, while overall crime was down, those categories previously reflected\u00a0increases,” said Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott.\u00a0 “This is excellent news showing initiatives such as the scrap metal ordinance and the hard work of deputies and detectives on the street is\u00a0working.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Robberies\u00a0led an overall reduction in violent crimes, descending from\u00a0169 to\u00a0150 (19 fewer cases).\u00a0\u00a0The most notable increase of all crimes was in the\u00a0auto theft classification which went from\u00a0219 last year to\u00a0312 this year.\u00a0 Also,\u00a0there is a\u00a0jump in\u00a0homicides from\u00a05 to\u00a011 county-wide which, coupled with unrelated cases\u00a0reported in the Dunbar area of Fort Myers, has been widely\u00a0publicized in recent weeks.\u00a0Sheriff Scott says, “Fort Myers Police Chief\u00a0Doug Baker and I are committed to working together\u00a0to aggressively\u00a0turn the tide to the\u00a0senseless violence\u00a0promoted by a select few within\u00a0our community.\u00a0 I am very grateful\u00a0for the support of community leaders and residents who want those responsible\u00a0removed from the streets and held accountable for the danger they pose.”<\/p>\n
The Sheriff’s Office\u00a0has primary jurisdiction for the unincorporated areas of Lee County, as well as the cities of Bonita Springs and Fort Myers Beach, but have county-wide arrest powers.\u00a0\u00a0Other county-wide services under the charge of the Sheriff include the operation of two correctional facilities, court operations and service of criminal warrants,\u00a0civil court orders and much more.\u00a0 “We’ve been asked to do more with less funding for as many years as the crime has decreased<\/strong>,” said Sheriff Scott.\u00a0 “I recognize even one crime is too many.\u00a0\u00a0To that end, all of us with the Sheriff’s Office\u00a0remain focused and committed to\u00a0keeping crime down and enhancing the safety and security of our citizens,\u00a0visitors and friends.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Crime Dropping In 1st Half of 5th Consecutive Year The 2012 Semi-Annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR) from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office reflects a continuation of the downward trend in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}