Polk County’s crime rate declined by 6.8 percent from 2009 to 2010, according to the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) statistics reported annually to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. This is the lowest crime rate ever measured in the Polk County Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction, breaking the 2006 all-time low of 3.02 crimes per 100. Reliable crime statistics in Polk County started in 1971, when the crime rate was 4.16.
The Polk/PCSO crime rate is nearly one third less (32.6%) than the most recently published Florida state crime rate (2.965 compared to 4.398). The Polk/PCSO violent crime rate is 43.6% lower than the state violent crime rate (.341 compared to .605).
There were 733 fewer crimes in 2010 than in 2009 in the Sheriff’s Office primary jurisdiction. There were 12,111 crimes in 2009 as compared to 11,378 crimes in 2010.
Violent crime is down 13% in Polk’s unincorporated area and Sheriff’s Office contract cities. There were a total of 1,504 violent crimes in 2009 and 1,308 in 2010, a reduction of 196 crimes.
“We are enjoying historically low crime rates in Polk County and in Florida. One of the most important reasons for this is we have insisted that convicted criminals go to prison for a minimum of 85% of their sentence since the mid 1990s. This has been one of the most successful criminal justice reforms in our history. Crime goes down when you put more criminals in prison where they belong. Incapacitation works. If the people predisposed to prey on innocents are in jail or prison, they can’t hurt us,” said Sheriff Grady Judd.
Sheriff Judd said he is concerned about the recent calls for ‘prison reform’, waring that if punishing criminals is taken less seriously, “people end up getting hurt and our property that we work hard for gets stolen.
“The Florida Legislature and the Governor need to tread carefully, so any proposed ‘reform’ doesn’t end up balancing the state’s budget on the backs of innocent citizens,” Sheriff Judd said. “Florida’s highest priority is public safety. The state’s funding priorities must reflect this truth.”
