Orlando Police Department’s year-end review reveals that overall crime rates in the city ultimately fell in 2014. Most notably, instances of home burglaries saw a significant drop, but cases of violent crime did rise slightly.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that Mayor Buddy Dyer and Police Chief John Mina announced the conclusions of the 2014 End of Year review on Friday.
The review found that crime was down 3% overall in Orlando. The greatest decrease was in residential burglaries, which was down 8%. This translates to more than 200 fewer cases.
Mina says it was community concern that led him to create a task force to combat instances of burglaries.
“That was our main focus going in,” Mina said. “We found that the people who are breaking into our homes during the day are the same people who are robbing people at night.”
For homeowners who are still concerned about the risk of burglary, adding security features to a home can help quash that anxiety — and may have played a small part in the reduction of crime. Security companies that have made locks for years have expertly moved into home automation, which uses devices to increase security. Many advancements in home automation connect commonly used devices like cell phones to alarm systems on a property.
Though home burglaries did decrease last year, there was a slight increase in the number of violent crimes — about 1%. According to WKMG, Mina says that focusing on reducing violent crime will be a priority in 2015.
“We’re going to use those same initiatives that we used to combat our residential burglaries and intelligence lead policing task force, all our different units, so when we’re having a problem, in an area or specific robbery problem we’re going to target that area,” added Mina.
Another priority for the Orlando Police Department in 2015 is to review the results of an officer body cam study, which is now underway and will conclude in February. The department and the University of Florida will then decide and explore whether or not to buy more body cameras — which will cost about $1.6 million.
The body cam study is also in response to a national discourse about police accountability in the wake of court decisions in New York City and Missouri last year.
“Body cams and video in general, it changes behavior and I think the citizens will act more appropriate, the officers of course will act more appropriately if they know they’re on camera,” said Mina.
