February 2007
Community Paper
copyright ©2007 by Community Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.


From the Desk of City Commissioner Robert Stuart

Dear Friends,

Valentine's Day is already here and before you know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here again. Our schools are working toward a great year-end push while awaiting the refreshing Spring Break. I don't have to tell you that time flies…my burgeoning gray hair is evidence of it.

I know that many of you have expressed your growing concerns about crime in our neighborhoods. I am concerned and have answered many questions from our friends about what our city is doing to stop crime and restore our public trust in our crime-fighting professionals. However, if you're like me, you have noticed more and more news articles about violent crime and it appears that Orlando is breeding new criminals everyday.

I don't want to be too harsh on our Fourth Estate but we all need to understand that news reporting today is a business. And, the “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality tends to make us think that crime in College Park and throughout Orlando is not under control. Yes, violent crime is up drastically over the past year and our Mayor's SAFE Orlando Task Force is looking at this trend and making recommendations in March on their findings and solutions. In addition, if you or a loved one has been a victim of an assault or break-in, your feelings of being personally violated may never go away. I have no intention of reducing your genuine feelings into a statistic…they are real and I'm concerned about each and every incident in our community. Any level of crime is too high for me, however, we all tend to react to the stories about our friends as victims and often these stories are retold without consequence of time or parameters.

This being clear, I asked our police chief, Chief Mike McCoy, to do some research as to the trend of crime in the College Park Community. I hope that these statistics will help restore your confidence in OPD's ability to catch criminals in our community:

Since 2004, we have seen a reduction in crime in College Park. Crimes like manslaughter, sex offenses, robbery (to a person or commercial), aggravated assault, motor vehicle thefts, burglary and all types of larceny are down 4.6%. Burglaries in 2006 are down 7.8% since 2005. While most other larcenies are down, there has been an increase in thefts from vehicles and other small break-ins and robberies. In addition, in crimes like arson, drug/narcotic offenses and fraud offenses (for example identification or credit card theft), we have experienced a reduction of 12.5% from 2005 to 2006! Congratulations to our great police force for their hard work!

Now, I know that some of you will not believe these figures. However, they are accurate. As Orlando grows, and College Park continues it renewal, we will likely see more crime. However, we may see different types of crime that may always keep us just a little uneasy. That's where you come in.

We see a marked decrease in areas that have an active Neighborhood Watch Group. These groups return us to the days of watching out for our neighbors, which is the first, and maybe best line of defense. If you see someone who appears to be suspicious, don't wait to call our non-emergency number (321-235-5300) and let them know. If you haven't become a part of Neighborhood Watch, join one. If there's not one to join, start one!

Crime is not solved just by our great police force…but rather it's a community-wide process that is led by some of the best professional police officers in the state. During the next few months, we will see more officers on the street, more patrols in our neighborhoods and more outreach into the community, while keeping up our recently-formed tactical squads that are currently having much success.

As part of my commitment to involve our neighborhoods in important City issues, I am hosting Dr. Stanley Stone, chairman of the Mayor's SAFE Orlando Task Force, to present the results and recommendations of their group at our next District 3 Community Leadership Forum. As we identified at our inaugural forum, this event will focus solely on how we can better curb crime in our neighborhoods and district-wide. Please mark your calendar for March 24, 2007 and look for more information next month, or check out our District 3 web site for the latest updates (www.CityofOrlando.net/District3).
I'm honored to spend time with our public safety professionals and can tell you, firsthand, of their devotion to “catching bad guys” and putting them away. Thanks for doing your part to make our community not only great, but also safe!

As always, it's an honor to serve you as your commissioner.

Robert

Robert F. Stuart, District 3 City Commissioner
400 S. Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801
Phone: 407-246-2003; e-mail Robert.Stuart@cityoforlando.net
or check out Orlando's website (www.cityoforlando.net)