Island home burglaries fall, vehicle larcenies rise in '11

Crime statistics released by the Longboat Key Police Department show that home burglaries on Longboat Key fell 45.8% in 2011 from the previous year, while auto burglaries rose by 32.1%. Overall crime dropped for the second consecutive year, with 110 non-violent crimes reported in 2011, compared to 119 in 2010. Violent crime numbers were low, as usual, with just two violent crimes recorded last year.

Longboat Key Police Chief Al Hogle said that he believes the Longboat Key Town Commission’s decision to allow the department to return to full patrol levels of four squads of three officers and one supervisor has helped to control crime by increasing visibility. The department is currently one officer below full patrol due to the recent retirement of an officer, Hogle said, however, the department will soon hire another officer.

Hogle pointed out the difficulty of drawing any larger conclusions about crime on Longboat Key because of the low numbers in any given year.

“Just a couple of numbers in one direction or another can skew the entire year,” Hogle said.

In fact, Longboat Key’s crime numbers are so low that after the department releases the town’s crime statistics, Hogle typically gets a call from a Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) official who needs to verify that the numbers are accurate.

Many of Longboat Key’s crimes occur in strings that can drive up numbers for the entire year. For example, police investigated nine vehicle break-ins and two home burglaries on Sept. 29, 2011, after which three Bradenton men were arrested.

Police frequently remind residents to stay safe by locking home and vehicle doors. Hogle is also continuing to work to bring a license-plate recognition camera system to both ends of the island that would snap photographs of license plates of vehicles entering and exiting the island and send the data immediately to the Florida Crime Information Center.