Leon County Arrests Down 30% in 2020 After COVID Mitigation Efforts

Leon County Arrests Down 30% in 2020 After COVID Mitigation Efforts

A Tallahassee Reports review of 2020 Leon County Sheriff Office booking reports show that arrests are down by approximately 30% when compared to arrests before the COVID pandemic became an issue in Leon County.

Incarcerations, while less than arrests, tracked the arrest trend during this period.

Before the COVID pandemic, data from 2019 and the first three months of 2020 shows that there were an average of 30 arrests per day or approximately 850-950 arrests per month.

However, in the middle of March 2020 arrests began to decline and reached a low of 10 arrests per day in April before trending back up.

During the the third quarter of 2020 (July-August) arrests increased to 16 per day and during the final quarter of the year arrests averaged 20 per day – a 33% decline when compared to pre-COVID numbers.

Despite the apparent correlation of the decline in arrests with the COVID mitigation efforts of state and local government, Sheriff Walt McNeil has stated that he does not believe the change is related to COVID.

The chart below shows the monthly trend of arrests and incarcerations during 2020.

Note: Tallahassee Reports codes information from the daily LCSO booking reports. Beginning next week TR will publish an analysis of the data each week.

8 Responses to "Leon County Arrests Down 30% in 2020 After COVID Mitigation Efforts"

  1. I think it is because officers are giving civil citations in cases where they would have made the arrest. Good on them. Doesn’t do a whole lot of good to lock up people for a whole host of crimes.

  2. Hmmmm…….This tells me that there has been fewer Arrests because Law Enforcement are not doing any arresting, not that the Crime is down. Crime is not down, Arrests are down because Law Enforcement is not wanting to interact with the Suspects in fear of getting Covid.

  3. Just another manipulated data point to use in order to avoid addressing the reality, and continue to control the masses.

    Everyone must remain unemployed and dependent on mama Fed, remain banned from attending church, ill-educated by internet Public Indoctrination System, pumping money into Amazon and Walmart, bowing to China, and wearing face diapers… you know, to help fight crime.

  4. Its great to know that 20% of criminals dont want to get or spread Covid.
    Conversely 80% of criminals dont give a crap.
    Leon County has the best criminals. Maybe in the while world!
    Thank you criminals this is something to really celebrate!!!!

  5. Another official who fails to see the glaring problems.

    Sheriff McNeil fails to know why things are the way they are, fails to react, and fails to be proactive.

    He will go through bureaucracy and smoke and mirrors in order to appear that something is being done, yet there will be no results, yet again.

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