ORLANDO, Fla. — Violent crime in Orlando increased 17% from 2019 to 2020, according to the Orlando Police Department’s 2020 annual report.
The report, which was just released by the department, shows there was also a major drop in officer self-initiated calls.
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Back in 2015 there were 161,732 self-initiated calls. Five years later there were just under 105,000.
Calls for services were also down last year, likely due to the pandemic.
Orlando police sent out a tweet in April telling the public that the proactive policing numbers were down by 50% since April of 2012.
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Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said he doesn’t know yet if the drop in stops is a good or a bad thing.
Law enforcement officers have said they are more reactive than proactive, saying the Black Lives Matter movement calling for an end to police violence puts a spotlight on them 24/7.
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Some said they are afraid that any minor incident could turn into a major one.
The chief doesn’t buy that excuse.
“I think it’s a poor excuse to not be working, in my opinion, if police officer doing everything by the book, there would be no reason to fear,” he said.
