Lealman Crime, By the Numbers: Part 1
The crime figures Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is scheduled to present to Lealman residents show a substantial decline in selected charges recorded by his office. They leave unanswered how much the neighborhood’s overall crime rate changed and what caused the improvement.
The report, included in the Oct. 28 Lealman Community Redevelopment Area Advisory Committee agenda packet, lists 2,583 selected charges in 2016, 2,115 in 2021 and 1,523 during the year ending Aug. 5, 2026.
That is a decrease of 1,060 charges, or approximately 41%, from the first period to the latest.
The distinction between charges and individual incidents matters. The Sheriff’s Office explains that one offense report can appear more than once in the table when it contains multiple applicable charges. The total therefore cannot be read as the number of separate crimes or people victimized.
The office also limits the analysis to selected categories, including burglary, theft, assault, battery, drugs, prostitution and vandalism. The table provides no separate totals for murder, robbery or sexual assault.
Researchers used 11 county geographic grids to define the study area and excluded reports generated by agencies other than the Sheriff’s Office. The packet supplies no population-adjusted rate or comparable countywide figures.
Those limitations are disclosed in the report. They are essential to understanding its results.
Several individual categories show sizable declines. The residential burglary row falls from 144 charges in 2016 to 41 in the latest period. Grand theft auto falls from 109 to 35. Aggravated battery falls from 33 to 12.
Other categories move in the opposite direction. Controlled-substance possession rises from 356 charges in 2016 to 413 in the latest period. Drug paraphernalia charges climb from 141 in 2021 to 198, an increase of approximately 40%.
The packet does not establish how much those changes reflect underlying criminal activity, enforcement priorities or reporting practices.
The reporting periods require attention, too. The first two columns cover calendar years. The latest covers Aug. 5, 2025, through Aug. 5, 2026. The office explains that it used a full year because calendar year 2026 was incomplete.
Although billed as a 10-year overview, the material provides three snapshots. It does not show annual figures for the intervening years, making it impossible to identify from this packet when particular changes occurred.
Gualtieri defended Flock and other automated license plate readers during an Oct. 8 county commission workshop, according to Florida Politics. The Lealman packet provides no analysis connecting camera deployment to the changes in its tables. It contains no comparison of areas with and without cameras or accounting of cases solved using them.
The Oct. 28 presentation gives committee members an opportunity to ask for the missing context: annual counts of unique incidents, consistent geographic boundaries and an explanation of changes in charge classifications or enforcement.
The committee meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, at Lealman Exchange, 5175 45th St. N., Building A. The agenda provides for questions and discussion following Gualtieri’s presentation.
Updated Oct 21, 2026