Q: Can you give some background on your agency’s Property Crimes Unit?
A: They are truly the unsung heroes of our organization. This unit currently has one working sergeant, two working corporals and seven detectives. With the new budget, we plan to add two additional detectives and a sergeant with the goal of making two full units, one serving the north part of the county and one for the south. Two of these detectives are subject matter experts in financial crimes. In addition to felony and misdemeanor theft, this unit works cases in agriculture, arson, burglary (both residential and commercial), criminal mischief (vandalism), crimes against the elderly, counterfeiting, racketeering, credit card crimes, impersonation, vehicle theft, and especially right now, retail theft. We’ve seen a 70 percent increase in retail theft, mostly due to the increase our county has seen in retail establishments.
Q: Do you have any statistics to share?
A: In 2021, 2,792 total property crimes were reported with the top three areas being some type of theft, fraud, and burglary. In 2022, we saw an 18 percent increase in total property crimes to 3,305 reported. The top three categories remained the same. So far in 2023, total property crimes are 3,267, but the top three categories have changed to now include retail theft (under $750) as the third highest category. This year, of the total property crimes reported, 464 were assigned to a detective for follow up; 265 cases are still active as of this date, and 60 cases were cleared by arrest.
Q:What else do the Property Crimes Unit detectives work on?
A: In addition to working active cases, the detectives take on lots of proactive activities, including following up with unlicensed contractors, working on mail fraud, and working with loss prevention specialists in specific retail stores.
Q: What are some of the big cases that this unit has solved?
A: There are a number of them including the extortion and threat to kill a prominent business owner, three major RICO cases involving contractor frauds with hundreds of victims, and the arrest of a major ring of South American burglary suspects who had been operating all over the US — but we caught them here. We also arrested two suspects in a massive mail theft ring and recovered $242,000 of the $382,000 lost in a romance scam that we were able to return to the victim.
Q: Do you have any reminders for our readers?
A: Don’t hesitate to call us if you see something suspicious. If you see something, say something.
Also, remember to secure your valuables and lock your doors. Remove your firearms from your vehicles and lock your car doors at night.
Q: What is the best way for our readers to contact you with any questions or suggestions about this article?
A: They can email me at sheriff@sjso.org or call me at (904) 824-8304. Also, our website, www.sjso.org has a wealth of resources, from alarm registration to Crime Stoppers to our Neighbors app.
