The Manatee and Sarasota sheriff’s offices have settled the question of which agency will patrol which section of University Parkway for drunken drivers or respond to any emergency or crime calls.

A botched DUI arrest last month exposed that the agencies had conflicting policies about some patrol zones on the busy six-lane road. University, formerly known as county line road, has long been believed to be the county line, but actually weaves back and forth between the two counties.

The DUI case was dropped by a judge after a defense attorney pointed out that a Manatee deputy had improperly arrested the driver in Sarasota County.
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The Sherriff’s deputy has just pulled over a driver and tells her he wants her to stand with her feet together.

Eventually the driver, Janet L., is arrested for DUI. She is very familiar with the process as the deputy finds out on the computer screen. Janet has been caught driving under the influence 10 times in the past.

When Janet took a breathalyzer test on the Intoxilyzer 8000 machine she blew a .119, above the legal .08 limit. Now, a three judge panel in Hillsborough is evidence that the machine is not reliable. Experts say the machine has tested people who gave two samples, but the machine only reported just one result. The experts also found blood alcohol levels were reported without breath volume being recorded.
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As civilian employees of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, Karen Jarrett and her staff of three cannot question suspects or make arrests.

Yet, they are now investigators nonetheless.

They process an endless flood of information from deputies, citizens, confidential informants and other law enforcement agencies to look for common denominators that might help solve crimes.

Sheriff Tom Knight initiated the program — known as intelligence-led policing, or ILP — shortly after taking office more than two years ago, making his agency one of the scattered few in the United States to use it. European countries have already embraced the effort to more swiftly and effectively use data to crack crimes.

With conventional police work, “we focused on gun-toting, badge-carrying cops,” said Ernie Scott, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida.

Traditionally, police agencies tended to be “information silos,” frequently guarding their turf and not always cooperating or sharing tips, said Scott, a retired investigator with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks abruptly altered that mindset, initially among federal agencies and then among local law enforcement.

The basic approach, Knight said, is to make better use of the efforts of deputies and detectives by having analysts go through every scrap of information to give officers viable leads.

“It’s just pure information sharing,” Knight said.
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Sheriff’s Maj. Kurt Hoffman has declined the position of interim Sarasota County Administrator, sending county officials back to the drawing board to find a temporary leader.

Hoffman, tapped two weeks ago by the County Commission, announced his decision Wednesday morning, blaming difficulties with the state’s retirement system that were drawing out the confirmation process.

“I worked in the bureaucracy but it seems like the bureaucracy swallowed me up this time,” Hoffman said. “In fairness to the county, we should let them get on with their situation.”

Hoffman had been expected to be confirmed this morning once he and the county attorney worked out his salary and other details. County Commissioners offered him the temporary job after the resignation of Jim Ley over two weeks ago amid an ongoing scandal in the way the county awards contracts.

Deputy County Administrator Dave Bullock has been in charge of administrative duties for the past couple of weeks and will continue to do so until another interim administrator is chosen.

Most commissioners indicated they would prefer someone from the outside to manage the 2,000-employee county government to restore public confidence and implement fixes to county purchasing.

Candidates floated by commissioners on Wednesday include Terry Lewis, former North Port police chief, former Sarasota County Administrator John Wesley White, and current County Attorney Stephen DeMarsh.

Commissioner Joe Barbetta suggested Lewis. Commissioner Jon Thaxton said he is considering White and Lewis, and Commissioner Nora Patterson suggested DeMarsh, as well as Bullock.
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Toxicology reports are pending in the death of a 52-year-old Bonita Springs woman who was hit by a Jeep SUV and thrown from her Schwinn Breeze bicycle Saturday night on Old U.S. 41 at West Terry Street.

The woman, Kellie G., was one of two Southwest Florida women killed Saturday while riding bicycles. Earlier, a 46-year-old woman died along the Sanibel Causeway when she was knocked off the bridge by a truck and into the water.

Kellie was traveling south on the shoulder when she veered into the right-turn lane and into the path of a 1997 Jeep Cherokee driven by Rachel R., 22, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Rachel was cited for driving with a suspended license, according to an FHP report.

Kellie had a rather extensive criminal history.

She was charged with felony DUI in Sarasota County in 2008 for a third DUI offense in 10 years.
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The City Commission this afternoon will fill the remaining seats on two advisory panels to the Police Department.

The commissioners previously appointed Elmer Berkel as chairman of the Independent Police Advisory Panel, which will review department policies and make suggestions. Berkel and City Manager Bob Bartolotta recommend eight nominees for the four remaining positions on the panel:

– Wayne Genther

– Kelvin Lumpkin

- Andrew Dorr

- Gregory Orenec

- Eileen Walsh Normile

- Debra Anderson

- Sandreanna Everett

- William Fuller III

The commissioners previously appointed Ron Riffel as chairman of the Complaints Committee, which will review how the department handles grievances filed against officers. Riffel and Bartolotta are asking the commission to consider the following eight nominees for the remaining four seats on that committee:

- Frank Brenner

- Fred Doery

- Hal McDuffie

- Jerry Meketon

- John Rivers

- Dedra Anderson

- Sandreanna Everett

- William Fuller III

The commissioners decided to establish the boards after an officer was accused of using excessive force on a suspect at the county jail and the previous police chief resigned.

Are you seeking the services of a Sarasota DUI lawyer? If so, call 941-916-3627 to schedule your free and confidential consultation with a defense attorney at Musca Law now.

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Anecdotal arguments that paid parking will scare away patrons and shutter Sarasota’s small businesses have for years kept meters off downtown curbs.

But today, Sarasota will begin installing high tech parking meters to charge for about 460 spots in the downtown core. By mid-May, most will charge $1 per hour Monday through Saturday, payable by cash and credit card.

Those who do not pay will be slapped with a $25 fine, which parking enforcement, armed with new technology, promises to rigorously collect.
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The Sarasota Police Department is the single most expensive item in the city budget. The annual police budget requires more money than all the property taxes collected in the city each year. In this fiscal year, the city will raise $16.1 million in property taxes; it will pay for an SPD budget of $25 million. The difference comes from other sources of revenue. The police budget dwarfs all the other city budget items combined.

In reality, the $26 million does not reflect the true cost, because other city departments support the SPD. These include costs for human resources, payroll, some legal fees and purchasing, which are absorbed by other departments. Conversely other city departments make money off the SPD. The department pays $200 to the public works department for an oil change on a cruiser, for example. Determining the true cost of the department is virtually impossible.

The city finance department estimates the actual cost for the SPD is a figure of approximately $31 million, or nearly twice the amount of money raised by property taxes.

This $31 million figure does not include amortization of the new $50 million police headquarters on Adams Lane.

If the building lasts 50 years, you can add an additional $1 million per year (to simplify things) to the annual cost of the SPD.
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In this investigation into the declining arrest numbers of the Sarasota Police Department, Chief Mikel Holloway said his force it outperforming other law agencies.

On many levels the cities of Sarasota and Bradenton are rivals. Similar in geographic size and population, the two vie to top each other. But for decades, Sarasota’s claim to the lowest crime rate was unchallenged. Until last year, when Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston began bragging his crime rate – for the first time in memory – was lower than Sarasota’s.

An analysis by the City of Sarasota’s Finance Department backs Poston up. In an analysis for the city’s Police Review Panel, the department compared eleven Florida cities of comparable population of a variety of benchmarks, including the crime rate per 1,000 people. Using figures from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), it showed Bradenton’s crime rate at 52.7 and Sarasota’s at 77.0. In fact, Sarasota was the second highest of the cities surveyed, coming only below North Miami’s 77.8.

Part One of this series saw arrests and jail admissions fall in the City of Sarasota by sizeable fractions year over year. The SPD’s own figures detailed a 23.8 percent decline between 2009 and 2010 for total arrests. An analysis of jail admission figures by Sarasota Patch found a 26 percent decline in the same period.

“Yes, arrests are down,” said Police Chief Mikel Holloway. “But we don’t necessarily look at that as a bad thing. I would like to think we’re doing a fine job.”
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