ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings unveiled his plan Tuesday to combat violence in the county.
Demings presented the plan to city commissioners at a meeting, where he also planned to ask for approval to buy a military-style armored vehicle that will be used throughout the county.
Pine Hills is an area that's seen a significant increase in the number of homicides since 2012.
The presentation comes on the heels of a violent end to 2016 in Pine Hills.
"This is a young-people problem. This is young people preying on the people in the area," said Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings.
Demings said Pine Hills has a gun violence problem and said young black males under the age of 25 are the ones he must reach to stop the growing issues in the community.
Since 2012, while robberies were down, homicides are up 67 percent.
The sheriff said there were four layers to combating crime: prevention, intervention, enforcement and prosecution.
The four-pronged approach to combat crime is a result of Operation Rise: an initiative by leaders in which they promised additional officers on the streets and more accessibility to deputies using a mobile substation.
The sheriff said since the initiative, they've seen a double-digit decrease in crime in Pine Hills.
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The sheriff said that in March, the task force will present its final recommendations, some of which could include security cameras in Pine Hills, an intervention program for first-time offenders and creating a point system to determine repeat offenders.
Money for the security cameras would have to come from grants and taxpayers.
There is also a plan to repair abandoned homes in Pine Hills.
"Those are places for crime to continue to occur," Demings said.
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said the county can't tear down every abandoned home but did ask the sheriff to be more specific on which ones should be demolished.
"If the sheriff can identify for us where he thinks he's got the greatest problems, we can do more to monitor those homes," Jacobs said.
Many neighbors believe that there should be youth mentoring programs.
“We don't have that well-defined,” Demings said. "We have work to do to make sure that becomes a reality.”
The sheriff also said they're going to be looking at grants to fund some of those programs, but he also said he's relying on Orange County commissioners to support him.
"Just to hear all the bad news, (and) there's some good people around here. There's some apples in the bunch that kind of mess everything up,” resident Melvin Phillips said.
Pine Hills residents are aware a few bad apples have given their community a bad reputation and contributed to the violence in their neighborhoods.
Residents said they are hopeful city and county leaders can make changes to stop the violence.
“Get with the community. Get with people that actually make stuff happen in Florida or in Pine Hills in general,” resident Dylon Santana said.
The armored vehicle that Demings wants to buy is similar to the one used by Orlando police to save lives during the Pulse terror attack.
In a separate request, the sheriff's office asked commissioners approval to purchase a Bearcat armored vehicle, which costs $300,000. The Bearcat would be used for several-type of incidents in the county.
In a separate request, the sheriff's office asked commissioners approval to purchase a Bearcat armored vehicle, which costs $300,000. The Bearcat would be used for several-type of incidents in the county.
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