The COVID pandemic may have resulted in fewer non-violent crimes, which rived Escambia County’s overall crime rate down 6.2% in comparison to 2019. Statewide the drop was much steeper. According to the 2020 Annual Uniform Crime Report released, Florida’s total crime volume dropped 14.1 percent.
Unfortunately, the violent crimes were up Escambia County. Murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and car thefts increased. The murders jumped from 27 to 32, rapes from 186 to 225, robberies from 337 to 376, aggravated assaults from 1,227 to 1,306 and motor vehicle thefts from 650 to 732. Five of the murders were inside the city limits.
Ten years ago, Escambia County reported 29 murders and 215 rapes. In 2000, the county had 16 murders and only 100 rapes.
On Nov 22, 2020 I contacted Pensacola PD about the online crime map for the city not being updated. Here is the response I received from the Public Information Officer: (These are direct email quotes)
“Looks like it’s down. I’ll check on it today.”
On Dec 2, 2020 He Emailed me this after I requested a follow up;
“The city’s IT department is aware of the situation and has been working on it.”
After a 3rd inquiry on Jan 4th he replied:
“It has been disabled due to a software issue. I have no idea when it will be back.”
You know, a little honesty goes a long way, especially from such a government agency.
The issue that city and county leaders should be discussing but want to ignore is why the Pensacola (3,369.5) and Escambia County (3,181.2) “per capita” crime rates this year (and in all recent years) are so high “relative” to the Florida rate (2,152.3). They stand in stark contrast to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s crime rate for 2020 (937.4). Why is Escambia County so dangerous and Santa Rosa County so safe? This is not a new problem. Since 2002, Pensacola’s crime rate has always been higher than the Florida crime rate and in 2012 it was 77.0% above. Why? Pensacola City Council members never ask the Mayor, City Administrator (who supervises the Police Chief) or the Police Chief about crime rates. In March 2016, the council meekly went along when Councilman P.C. Wu insisted that the public and media should not be allowed to hear the Police Chief’s monthly crime report given to the council saying that it was like “taking dirty laundry and hanging it up.” Councilman Larry Johnson said that he too had been contacted by local realtors upset about public talk about crime in the city. Only Councilwoman Sherri Myers objected to making the crime report secret. On the county side, for all of Sheriff David Morgan’s 12 full years in office (2009 to 2020), the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office crime rate (the Sheriff patrols 96% of the county to include the Town of Century) was every year “above” the Florida crime rate. Why? In contrast, for every year that Sheriff Ron McNesby was in office (2001 to 2008), his crime rate was “below” the Florida crime rate. Why? The only thing that changed was the Sheriff. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away.