Lauderhill to announce investment in new crime-fighting technology
MIAMI - The City of Lauderhill saw fewer felony crimes in the last six months compared to the same period one year prior, according to Lauderhill police statistics.
"Given the increased manpower, I would expect that we would see some return on our investment," Melissa Dunn, a city commissioner said.
Comparing felony crimes recorded between October 1st 2021-April 30th 2022 against those from between October 1st 2022-April 30th 2023, police reported an 18% reduction. Within that data, the city saw fewer burglaries, robberies, and car thefts, according to police statistics.
"We've also had an increase in arrests," Lauderhill Police Chief Constance Stanley said. "Again, that's as a result of strictly of people reporting (crimes)."
Chief Stanley credits her 132 sworn officers for more engagement children and adults in their community in programs setup to build trust. Still, shootings, at least four in May, continue.
"Without technology there's certain types of crimes that you know we can't discover without it," Chief Stanley said.
"For an example people just report certain things but that technology would allow us to respond to certain location where we may not have gotten a call otherwise."
The commission plans to announce investment in new crime-fighting technology Saturday.
However, that is only part of Commissioner Dunn's vision of peace. Whatever her city spends on crime fighting, Dunn and colleague plan to invest in housing and jobs for people leaving jail or struggling to feed families.
"Imagine if everyone from seniors to youth, business owners to non-profits and the faith-based community were to decide that this city was so important to them that they're all going to be involved," Commissioner Dunn said.
The Lauderhill Health and Prosperity Partnership invited the community to a resource fair at city hall Saturday at 10 a.m.
The group plans to march from the police department to city hall as a sign of unity to achieve peace.
For the commission, peace is more than people no longer shooting one another. It involves the entire community helping address factors contributing to criminal behavior, Dunn said.
"Even if only 10% of the 74,000 people were to decide that I'm going to work with the city to create a shared vision everything would be better," Dunn said.