Today, at the 2025 City Commission Annual Retreat, Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell will tell elected leaders and other officials that violent crime in Tallahassee was down 15.5% in fiscal year 2024 when compared to 2023.
Tallahassee Reports recently reported that violent crime incidents were down 20.6% in 2024.
The item on the agenda states that “The City has developed a proactive and comprehensive approach to preventing, deterring, detecting, and responding to criminal activity in Tallahassee.”
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 agenda item states, “The resounding success of these efforts is reflected in various metrics, including a 15.5% decrease in Tallahassee’s violent crime rate (includes homicide, manslaughter, aggravated assault, forcible sex offenses, and robbery) between FY2023 and FY2024, exceeding our previous strategic plan goal. “
The agenda item also states that to sustain this recent success, TPD will need more police officers – “TPD aims to continue building on the most important factor in addressing public safety by increasing the number of sworn officers per capita by 5%, or 20 officers. Through dynamic recruiting strategies in Tallahassee and other areas of Florida and the country, TPD hired 39 sworn officers in 2024 and anticipates the powerful draw to our community to continue.”
@ Terry Ryan = My guess is, the biggest source of toxic contaminants and nutrients flowing to Lake Munson is the Water Treatment Plant there at Springhill Rd and Cap. Circle. That place has had MANY Failures over the Years.
Wonder if the City Manager informs commissioners the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is working on a costly enforcement Consent Order in response to the numerous and voluminous sewage spills over the past two years. Enough is enough of raw sewage flowing into our Class III recreational water bodies!
The Tallahassed Region Environmental Group’s next project is finding the sources of toxic contaminants and nutrients flowing to Lake Munson!
Visit us: http://www.treg1.org
Happy New Year TR Reposonders. My, my, my … the angst from some of you. First, the crime numbers are NOT skewed. If you think there’s an incorrect calculation then send a note to the editor. The beauty of math is its certainty. That said, if you notice the quote on the crime number comes from the City agenda. TR is the only media outlet which has been tracking the daily incident reports for years. They say what they say. Second, had the City Manager come up with a budget keeping taxes flat (if not a rollback), but allocating needed funding to TPD, the two uber-illiberals on the Commission would have opposed it and if you do not agree, then you simply are either not paying attention or your are Ryan Ray or Max Herle … LOL. Third, TPD was dramatically UNDER funded for years by Anita Favors-Thompson and the Commission at the time. We paid for it with the highest violent crime rate in the state of Florida (no small feat). Lastly, violent crime is down; shooting deaths are a problem, but nearly every single one is where the shooter and victim are known to eachother. These are not random killings. Just remember where Tallahasseans would be if the Commission had flipped and gone Portland. Police funding would be slashed and you would really have something to complain about.
Why is TR skewing the numbers to look 25% better than reality? I don’t believe anything any journalist writes anymore.
I do know this, every weekend when the sun goes down the southside of Tallahassee sounds more like the Ok Corral than a town with a declining crime rate. Stop carrying water for their stupid tax increase why don’t you…? And stop telling me things that I know are not true!
FYI: the city numbers are for Fiscal Year 2024 which ends Sept. 30, 2024. TR’s numbers are for calendar year which ends on December 31, 2024.
It’s down because it is COLD OUTSIDE. Wait for it to start warming up. I will start climbing again in late February.
Love it! Fudge the stats and then say crime is down after taxing us into safety.
Tallahassee at it’s best.