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Tampa Defies Trend In State, Sees Crime Drop

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By VALERIE KALFRIN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 7, 2007

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TAMPA - Bucking a statewide trend, overall crime in Tampa dropped 8.6 percent in the first half of this year compared with the first half of 2006, statistics released Tuesday show.

The Tampa Police Department's semiannual crime report shows 10,367 specific violent and nonviolent crimes reported in the city from January to June. That's 978 fewer crimes than were reported from January to June 2006.

Statewide, the total number of reported crimes committed in Florida rose 3.9 percent during the first half of the year, according to statistics from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement released Friday.

The reports track seven crimes: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and vehicle theft.

The statewide data don't take into account population changes, which could influence these statistics.

In Tampa, the total number of reported violent crimes - murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault - dropped by 23.2 percent. That counters state figures, which showed a 2 percent increase in violent crime reported throughout Florida during the first half of the year, according to the FDLE.

However, the statewide report shows Tampa mirrors the decline in reported crimes during the first half of the year in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. According to the FDLE, reported crimes in Hillsborough dropped by 4.3 percent and in Pinellas by 4.9 percent from January to June, compared with the same time frame in 2006.

Both the number of murders and the number of robberies reported increased in Tampa during the first half of the year. There were 19 murders, four more than during the first six months of 2006, or a 26.7 percent increase, Tampa police statistics show. Three of them were domestic-violence related, police said.

Robberies rose from 579 reported during the first six months of 2006 to 591 reported during the first six months of this year, a 2.1 percent increase, statistics show.

Crime reported in other categories declined, which Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis attributed to the agency's community-policing strategy. The department has strong relationships with neighborhoods, which helps in solving crimes and reporting suspicious activity, and deploys its resources based on analysis of where crimes are reported, she said.

Tampa's officers also are highly proactive, Davis said. Department statistics show the majority of the 758,349 calls for service police handled last year - 68 percent - were self-initiated. Only 243,081, or 32 percent, were emergency calls from the public.

In the report released Tuesday, aggravated assaults dropped 32.8 percent - the most of any crime category - from 1,709 reported in the first six months of 2006 to 1,148 in the first six months of this year.

Of the other crimes reported, vehicle theft dropped 16.6 percent, from 1,260 to 1,051. Sexual battery - a category Tampa police use that includes rape, forcible sodomy and forcible fondling - dropped 12.5 percent, from 96 to 84. Burglary declined 6.1 percent, from 2,247 to 2,109. Larceny declined 1.4 percent, from 5,439 to 5,365.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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