Arrests up and crime down in Hernando County | Crime

Brooksville, Fla. -- The Hernando County Sheriff's Office is pleased to announce crime is down and arrests are up in Hernando County.

In 2011, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office says it has cleared 321 more crimes than in 2010, with 298 of those resulting in an arrest.  The clearance rate for the agency increased by 5.6 percent over 2010 and exceeds the average clearance rate for the state of Florida.

When comparing the 2011 Annual Crime Report to the 2011 Semi-Annual Crime Report (published in July 2011), Sheriff Nienhuis noticed an anomaly between the crime statistics for the first 6 months of the year as compared to the last half of 2011.  He then directed his staff to drill further into the monthly data to better understand the specific areas and reasons for the significant changes. 

When adjusted for population (using the latest FDLE Census data), the county's increase of 1.7 percent became a decrease of 2.8 percent -- the best crime rate in 15 years.  After a thorough analysis of the data, going month-by-month throughout the year, it was determined that the reported Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data was accurate; however, the semi-annual report included 19 extra days in the report (6 months and 19 days of crime data for 2011, compared to 6 months ofcrime data for 2010).  This reporting period error resulted in the appearance of a semi-annual crime increase much larger than the actual increase.

Sheriff Nienhuis responded to the latest report:

 "After thorough analysis, I am pleased with our efforts to aggressively respond to criminal activity throughout the year.  We do this by investigating each crime to the fullest extent practical.  This method has resulted in a consistently higher clearance and arrest rate than in the past and the lowest crime rate in over 15 years. 

Maintaining a safe community plays a key role in helping our county, our citizens, and our businesses succeed through these difficult economic times. Individuals who make the decision to commit crimes in Hernando County need to understand that our agency will investigate and pursue them aggressively to ensure they have to answer for their illegal actions."