St Lucie County Crime Rates 2017
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St Lucie County
Overall crimes in seven major categories in the county dropped more than 10 percent last year compared with 2016, despite a rise in population of 5,000, according to statistics released this in May, 2018 by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).
The chart actually shows a 28.3% drop in crime since 2012! That’s a steady drop in the last 5 years! That’s great news!
- There were 5,786 reported crimes in St. Lucie County in 2017 in the categories of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft, according to the FDLE.
- That compares to the 6,450 reported crimes in 2016, when the population was nearly 5,000 people fewer than it was last year.
St. Lucie was the only county on the Treasure Coast to experience an overall decrease in these crimes, FDLE statistics show.
- The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office and police in Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie all experienced drops in reports of aggravated assault, burglary and larceny.
- The Sheriff’s Office also investigated fewer motor vehicle thefts in 2017, as compared to 2016, while the two police departments investigated more last year.
Sheriff Ken Mascara noted via text message several initiatives contributed to the drops in property-related crime, including a Facebook campaign about securing
vehicles.
“It’s 9 p.m. Have you locked your car doors? Lock it up Treasure Coast! A message from your local sheriffs,” the message states.
Mascara also credited regular columns he writes for a community magazine and local media “around the holidays with tips to avoid being a victim of these crimes.”
Mascara stated there is a “heavy emphasis” on crime prevention at homeowners’ meetings.
- The crime rate per 100,000 people also decreased for each police and sheriff’s agency.
- Murders investigated by the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office dropped from 3 to 2 for the county and total arrests dropped nearly 11 percent.
- St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office saw a slight uptick in robberies, going from 30 in 2016 to 33 last year.
Florida
- In all of Florida, all crime dropped 4.5 percent in 2017
- Violent crime declined 3.3 percent
- Total arrests dropped 2 percent statewide.
Port St Lucie
- Port St Lucie has a population of 185,000, which is more than 4 times the population of Fort Pierce – it had a crime rate of 1,275 per 100,000 people.
- Murders investigated by Port St Lucie police dropped from 3 to 2 in the city.
Port St. Lucie Police Chief John Bolduc could not be reached Wednesday.
Fort Pierce
- Fort Pierce, which in 2017 had a population of 43,409, had the highest crime rate per 100,000 people of any municipal area in the county: 4,082.
- There were seven reported murders in Fort Pierce in 2016, and eight last year.
- Police in Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie also reported drops in robberies.
Fort Pierce Police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney said the crime drop is “great news for us and for our citizens.” She said her agency “changed the dynamics in how we patrol and how we do things.”
“More importantly, we’ve partnered with our community and our community is our eyes and ears and they are working with us,” she said. “We are breaking those barriers down, and more and more people are calling and we’re trying to send a clear message that it is not just a police department issue. It is a community issue. It’s their neighborhood, and they have to have that investment as well.”
Hobley-Burney said violent crime is down, and the agency does all it can to ensure neighborhood safety. She said she makes sure undercover officers don’t get into set patterns, so they are not predictable.
“We adjust our patrol, we adjust our undercovers … just to meet the needs when we see patterns of crime happening,” she said. “We put that emphasis on those areas to try and calm and let the neighborhoods know that they are safe.”
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