Tampa crime rate drops 61.5% during Iorio's tenure

The city's crime rate plummeted 61.5 percent in the past eight years, including a 12.4 percent drop last year, police announced Monday.

The crime rate includes seven categories: murders, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies, vehicle thefts and forcible sex offenses.

Except for homicides, each saw a decrease in 2010.

In 2002, there were about 35,400 crimes reported in the seven categories. By last year, that number had fallen to about 13,600, police said.

Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor said several factors contributed to the drop-off in the past eight years, from increased community involvement to more proactive policing policies. She also credited Mayor Pam Iorio's leadership during her two terms.

Iorio said she considers the eight-year decrease in crime her greatest accomplishment as mayor. She credits Castor and former Chief Stephen Hogue, saying the chiefs revamped the department.

"They took the resources of the department and reorganized. They have provided the kind of leadership that the officers feel good about and want to be part of," Iorio said. "And the officers have been really good with self-initiated calls. We have gone from a reactive police department to a proactive police department. And that has made all the difference."

Hogue came to the department in September 2003.

"He said, 'Mayor, I don't need more people and I don't need more money, all I need is for you to be behind us,' " Iorio said. "And I said, 'We're behind you all the way.' "

The Focus on Four Plan, which reorganized the department and changed the police mission, began in February 2004.

The Focus on Four Plan aims to reduce robberies, burglaries, auto thefts and auto burglaries, in turn reducing other crimes. The plan includes making better use of crime data and trends, and developing community partnerships.

In September 2009, Iorio announced she was appointing Castor to succeed Hogue, who was retiring. Months later, police announced the 2009 crime rate fell 16 percent.

Castor's department merged three groups - street-level drug squads, street anti-crime officers and district detectives - to form Rapid Offender Control squads. The ROC squads focus on areas with the most crime and calls for service in each of the department's three districts.

Castor said she hopes for a 3 percent drop in the 2011 crime rate.

"There will be a bottom sometime, without a doubt," she said. "I don't believe we're there. We can further reduce crime in the city."

The 2010 drop is in line with unincorporated Hillsborough County, where crime dropped 16.2 percent last year, the largest drop in four years of decreases.

Castor said one major drop in the past eight years came in Tampa's auto thefts - an 80 percent reduction.

"Primarily juveniles will steal a car and commit a variety of crimes throughout the community," she said. "By reducing those auto thefts, it seems to have a ripple effect on the other crime."

The decrease in crime comes despite the city's growth - Tampa's population was estimated at 343,890 in 2009, compared with 303,447 in 2000, according to census statistics.

Some people might doubt such a significant crime drop-off could occur without figures being altered.

"What I tell them is come and look," Castor said. "All of our numbers have been audited. We take our crime reporting very, very seriously. We need to deploy our resources appropriately so we have to have an accurate crime picture. And the city needs to know how safe their neighborhood is."

In compiling its annual crime rate, the police department follows guidelines from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI.

According to the department's 2010 statistics, sex offenses dropped from 111 to 90, though sodomy increased for the second straight year, from 10 to 24.

Homicides rose from 20 to 27. That's a 35 percent increase, but investigators say homicide totals fluctuate widely and there is no way to predict trends. One man - Dontae Morris - is accused in four slayings, including two Tampa police officers, within the city limits last year.

Tampa has averaged 27 homicides a year for the past eight years; it had averaged 38 a year for the previous eight years.

The increase in Tampa's homicides in 2010 was in line with a countywide trend but not a national one.

There were 72 slayings countywide in 2010, a 20 percent increase from the prior year.

But according to a preliminary report from the FBI, law-enforcement agencies nationwide say slayings were down 7.1 percent for the first six months of 2010 when compared with 2009.

(813) 259-7691