BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – During the morning session of the August 17 Gainesville City Commission meeting, Gainesville Police Department (GPD) presented its quarterly report for April-June 2023.

Chief Lonnie Scott pointed out that crime has increased overall by 20.53% since the same quarter last year; violent crime increased by 2.03%, and property crimes have increased by 24.9%. Compared to the third fiscal quarter of 2022, aggravated assaults (threatening someone with a weapon) increased and homicides, rapes, and robberies decreased.

Compared to the previous quarter this year, stolen firearms are up 38%, weapons seized are up 26%, the number of shots fired is down 3%, the number of persons shot is up 18%, and the number of homicides is down 75%. Scott said the vast majority of stolen firearms were from unlocked cars. 

Comparing the first half of 2023 to the first half of 2022, there have been almost 5% fewer stolen firearms, an almost 40% increase in weapons seized, a 13.5% decrease in reports of shots fired, twice as many persons shot (100% increase), and a 67% increase in homicides (five vs. three).

There were 11 traffic homicide investigations in the first half of 2023, on track to match last year’s 24 investigations. Through three fiscal quarters, traffic deaths are down from 22 to 17, and serious bodily injuries are up from 19 to 22.

In the most recent quarter, GPD’s co-responder program had 22 jail diversions, 63 Baker Act diversions, and 22 emergency department diversions for people with mental health or substance use diagnoses.

Scott said the department has a vacancy rate of 17% and is focusing on recruiting; five sworn officers were hired in the third quarter out of 68 applications. Thirty-nine did not show up, 10 were disqualified, and six withdrew. Eight more new hires are still in the process. 

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Reichert House

Commissioner Casey Willits asked Chief Scott about Reichert House, and Scott said most people believe it will come back under a private entity. He said three people who are currently employed by the City as Reichert House staff have been brought into the police department, and two of them will work in youth and young adult outreach, “to try to help fill some of that void that’s there and provide some services to those youth and young adults… We can’t get out of the business of dealing with the youth.” He said the third person will be coordinating neighborhood crime watches.

New gun violence prevention initiative

Scott told the commission that GPD will soon be implementing a new gun violence prevention initiative, led by new Assistant Police Chief Nelson Moya. 

Moya said GPD is still in the process of creating a plan, but he has hand-picked a group of people who have “a specific skill-set, that are well-balanced in their approach to policing.” He said the group will identify potential offenders and potential victims, with the goal of having “boring days and boring nights, where we don’t get those call-outs of a notification of yet another shooting.”  

Moya said the group will be “connected closely to our patrol folks but equally as closely connected to entities such as our schools, our SROs, other partners that are dealing with us, the community.” He said many shootings are not from “your traditional root cause that we have seen in the past–sure, there may still be drug dealing. But you’re seeing things that nowadays spark gun violence which, back in the day, it didn’t. Social media plays into this.” He said the goal is not to blanket the community and stop everybody and treat them as if they’re involved in wrongdoing but to gather information and “hope that interaction leads to a positive outcome… So case management is in play. Threat assessment is in play, enforcement is in play.”

The agenda item concluded with a discussion of several of the ordinance changes that Commissioner Ed Book brought up in his Sunshine Meeting with Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker. City Manager Cynthia Curry said her office is working on them and will bring them to the commission for discussion in the next few months.