Florida’s crime rate drops for 2020

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB)–Despite 2020 being a year full of new challenges and conflicts, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says Florida’s overall crime rate dropped.

In particular, burglaries, larcenies, and robberies decreased significantly.

Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford says that may be due to people spending more time at home due to the Coronavirus.

Locally, Bay County saw an overall 20% drop in crime from 2019 to 2020. While that is good news, Ford says data varies from year to year and that the community should use this as motivation to continue keeping Bay County a safe place to live.

“We typically see fluctuations of up 5% down 5% but I think our people, and that includes the police departments as well, do a great job in providing law enforcement services in the county,” Ford said.

While overall crime was down across the state, FDLE says murders did go up. Bay County reported 11 murders in 2020 compared to 8 in 2019.

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