“Crime Wave Rocks Community”

“Crime Wave Rocks Community”

Marla Kines, Orlando Weekly 3-18-18

Violent crime averages of central Florida, including homicides, rose for the second month in February, driven by increases in a few neighborhoods of Orlando, Apopka, and Kissimmee. While crime over all and violent crime remain well below their levels of the 1980s and 1990s, this year has experienced marked rises from trends over the last decade. While police officials and have not offered any explanation for the upsurge, criminologists have pointed to the ongoing developments of the evidence tampering scandal investigations that have shattered public trust in law enforcement agencies.

February saw an average 190% rise in violent crime in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Polk, & Brevard counties compared to February 2017. In these analyses, violent crime tracked included assault, sexual assault, and homicides. Most notably, the rates tracked in Orange county was 440% of what occurred in the same period last year, and the highest recorded per capita since 1974.