Crime rate in Brevard County is at its lowest point in more than 20 years

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said the crime rate in Brevard County is at its lowest point in 20 plus years.

Every year the sheriff’s office submits its Uniform Crime Rate (UCR) report to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The report reflects crimes reported in unincorporated Brevard County.

Sheriff Ivey said the 2018 report shows a 12 percent decrease in the crime rate compared to 2017. He said the crime rate has been declining for several years. Since January 2013, Brevard County has seen an overall decrease of 29.07 percent in its crime rate.

The sheriff said the numbers are getting lower because of his officers’ aggressive approach to crime and their partnership with the community. “I think the biggest contributing factor was the partnership we created with this community,” Sheriff Ivey said. “When you consider that our team is working to get our citizens vital crime prevention information before they become a victim, now they’re the first line of defense. They know what to do to protect themselves.”

He said his officers also understand how to use social media as another avenue to do community policing and it allows them to instantly reach citizens to convey important information.  Sheriff Ivey said, “Just on Facebook alone with our two pages, with the push of a button we’re reaching out to 135,000 people. There’s no other tool that you have that gives you that outreach to your citizens.”

Sheriff Ivey also said every day the community is telling deputies about people that are committing crimes, how they can solve them and helping deputies get fugitives off the street.

Ivey also said his deputies are aggressive about crime. “We make no bones about it. Our team goes out every day trying to put bad people in jail. That’s what they get paid to do and they do it better than anybody else.”

Sheriff Ivey said his officers remain focused on keeping the community safe and keeping crime rates low. But he said the county still has a big problem with people breaking into unlocked cars.

“When we go home a lot of the times people leave their cars unlocked sitting in the driveway,” he said.

“A lot of it feeds back into they live in a safe neighborhood, they feel comfortable in that but that’s the number one problem we face.” Sheriff Ivey is reminding people to always lock their car doors to help prevent car break-ins.