Town crime rate stats lower than surrounding areas

Longboat Key Police Chief Pete Cumming presented data to the Longboat Key Town Commission at its regular workshop Sept. 24 that reveals the island’s crime is lower than its surrounding municipalities.

When reviewing a five-year comparison of residential burglaries and motor vehicle thefts in Longboat Key, Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach and Siesta Key, Longboat Key’s crime rate, for the most part, is statistically lower than its counterparts.

Cumming said he expects crime on the island to further decrease, once the town selects a contractor to place license plate recognition cameras on each end of the island.

“We can document everyone coming and going,” Cumming said. “As an investigator searching for someone who committed a crime on the island, we can go back to the cameras and check every car that entered and exited the island during the time that crime was committed.”

Cumming hopes a vendor that’s been selected to test their equipment on both ends of the island can install the cameras on the island early next year.