Incident data published daily by the Tallahassee Police Department shows that total crime incidents in 2024 declined by 9.2% when compared to incident data from 2023. The drop was driven by a 20.1% decline in violent crime.
The decline comes after a controversial property tax increase was passed to address increasing violent crime trends in 2023. The tax increase raised approximately $9 million for public safety.
City commissioners voted 3-2 in June 2023 to move forward with the tax increase. Those supporting the increase included Mayor John Dailey and City Commissioner Curtis Richardson and City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox.
City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow and City Commissioner Jack Porter voted against the tax increase.
The Numbers
The incident data -tabulated by TR – show that property crime incidents are down 3.5% and violent crime incidents are down 20.6% during the period.
Property crimes encompass burglaries, thefts, and incidents of vandalism. Violent incidents include aggravated assaults, armed robberies, and physical altercations.
A look at specific crimes (see table below) reveals the 3.5% decrease in property crime is being driven by a 4.0% decrease in residential burglaries and a 26.5% decrease in commercial burglaries. The Auto Burglary & Theft category – which accounts for approximately 60% of all property crimes – was up 2.7%.
The YTD violent crime data shows that robbery incidents were down 23.1%, while assault & battery incidents were down 18.3%.
Fatal Shootings
Despite the decline in violent crime incidents in 2024, shooting deaths continue to be a problem in Leon County. In 2024, there were 26 fatal shootings, compared to 24 fatal shooting deaths in 2023. There were 15 shooting deaths in 2022.
Two of the deadliest months since 2019 occurred in 2024. There were seven fatal shootings in January and five fatal shootings in November. No year since 2019 featured two months with more than 4 fatal shootings.
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