Daytona Beach, FL - A new report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement shows Volusia and Flagler counties are mirroring the statewide trend of decreasing crime.
FDLE's Uniform Crime Report - which is released semi-annually - has overall crime reports dropping by 10.2% in Volusia and 6.9% in Flagler for the first six months of 2018 compared to the same time period in 2017. Statewide, that number was at 8%.
VOLUSIA
Nearly all of Volusia's 18 law enforcement agencies reported fewer overall crimes, with the exceptions being the police departments of DeLand (11.4% increase), Port Orange (6.1%) and Ponce Inlet (29.2%).
The biggest drops were posted by the police departments of Holly Hill (34.8%) and South Daytona (24.1%) along with Volusia County Beach Safety (23%).
Almost everyone else reported decreases between 10% and 20%, including the police departments of Lake Helen (18.2%), Edgewater (16.9%), Daytona Beach Shores (12.4%), Daytona Beach (12.2%), Ormond Beach (10.6%) and New Smyrna Beach (10.3%). The lone exception was Orange City (6%).
The Volusia County Sheriff's Office - which is the largest law enforcement agency in the county - reported a drop of 14.3% while also posting the second highest number of crime reports (1,652). Only Daytona Beach (2,028) had more during the first half of 2018, with every other agency reporting 750 crimes or less during that stretch.
County-wide, Volusia had slight drops in murder (-1), rapes (-3) and robberies (-20). Most of the declines came in the report's other four categories: motor vehicle theft (-61), burglaries (-167), aggravated assault (-169) and larcenies (-409).
Daytona Beach reported the most murders (5), aggravated assaults (306) and larcenies (1,390), with VCSO right behind in all three categories (4 murders, 154 aggravated assaults and 987 larcenies).
The city also had the second-most rapes (6), robberies (32), burglaries (184) and motor vehicle thefts (105) in Volusia, trailing only VCSO, which reported 39 rapes, 51 robberies, 295 burglaries and 122 motor vehicle thefts.
The one area where Volusia did worse was in clearance rate, which was 30.5% for the first half of 2018 compared to 30.7% for the first six months of the year prior. That is based on a math ratio of cases solved per 100 offenses.
Port Orange police had the worst clearance rate of all Volusia law enforcement agencies (15.6%), followed by Holly Hill (20.3%), DeLand (28.1%), Beach Safety (29.8%) and Daytona Beach (30%).
Every other was over the county average, with Florida Highway Patrol (66.7%), Lake Helen (55.6%), Ponce Inlet (38.7%) and Daytona Beach Shores (37%) leading the way. All four of those agencies, however, had far fewer cases to work than most of the others in Volusia.
VCSO's clearance rate was 34.8%, slightly below Ormond Beach (35.5%) and New Smyrna Beach (36.7%). South Daytona (33.9%), Orange City (32.3%) and Edgewater (32.1%) round out the list.
FLAGLER
The county as a whole reported less crime in most categories, though it should be noted that the Bunnell Police Department was "unable" to post its first-half numbers for 2017, according to FDLE officials. BPD did manage to do so in 2018.
Other than murder (no change) and motor vehicle theft (+1), every other category had fewer reports in 2018 than the year prior. Those are rape (-10), robberies (-11), aggravated assault (-9), burglaries (-33) and larceny (-3).
The most dramatic change was in clearance rate, where Flagler posted 34.3% for the first six months of this year compared to 22.8% during the same period the year prior, a difference of 11.5%.
Being the largest law enforcement agency in the county by far, the Flagler County Sheriff's Office dealt with over 84% of all reported crimes in the county, with BPD and the Flagler Beach Police Department dealing with much smaller caseloads.
Having said that, FBPD did report a 4.3% increase in its overall crime rate and the highest clearance rate of all three agencies (39.6%). FCSO's rate was 34.2%, while BPD posted 32.2%.
