Crime in Miami Gardens between 2002 and 2005 was out of control resulting to the city Council approving a shift to its own department from Miami-Dade County Police. The department started it service in December 2007 and by 2011 the city has witnessed an overall decline in serious crimes by 33%.This reduction has occurred across board and the only exception has been on homicide which has remained steady. There was use of the FDLE data in comparing a crime average rate for three years for other local cities and the findings confirmed that there are now lower overall crime rates in Miami Gardens than in Miami Beach, Miami, North Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano, Orlando and even St. Petersburg. While the gang activities and homicides continue to lead both locally and nationally, Miami Gardens has currently developed preventive as well as proactive strategies in combating violent crimes of any nature especially those that are related to the youthful offenders. The step of taking over of the police service by the City Council has been meaningful and significant in creating a city whose residents are safe and can receive services that are effective and efficient.
There has been an increase in the number of officers resulting to an improvement in service level thus creating a high accountability level to the residents. A reference to Miami Gardens as being the new murder capital for South Florida is not a ploy to sparking leadership neither was it done in sensationalism spirit but it was based on up to date statistics. Though there has been a decline in crimes like robbery, there has continued to be an escalation of murder rate with ominous results. Shootings are so common with some citizens becoming immune to such violence. Most residents take such gun-related murders as being targeted ones and if this is so, challenge to Miami Gardens is now not on the random shootings but the revenge acts. The acts could be plotted carefully but the stray bullets don’t hit the target always and in most cases the innocents are caught in the crossfire. There are allusions that have been made to the gang problem but elected officials and police tend to skirt the issue which is tantamount to the proverbial ostrich: sticking ones in the sand.
There is a real problem in Miami Gardens because young thugs are bent on making the city a play ground for their criminal activities Crime report for the Miami Gardens by Home surfer crime rating shows a possible 0.6 out of 5 points. An area is regarded as being safe if the rating is higher. The crime rating is done in comparison with similar crimes in the nation and state. There is a heavy weighing on violent crime than property crime and the national ranking is important as compared to state ranking. Per 100,000 people in Miami Gardens, there are 1009 incidents of violent crime. This compares to the national rate of 805 and 676. Lower rate is an indication is a better one because it shows fewer crimes in the population per person. Miami Gardens has been ranked in the 79% percentile in the violent crime’s state and nationally it falls within 92% percentile meaning that Miami Gardens has a rate that is equal to or higher than 79% of cities or in another way its only 21% of cities in that have crime rates that are higher than that of Miami Gardens. Property crime rate in Miami Gardens which comes from larceny, burglary, and arson and vehicle theft shows that in every 100,000 people, there are 6074.2 incidents compared to a national average rate of 4877.7 and 3727 incidents.
The civil litigation system in Miami Gardens is concerned mainly with victim compensation instead of punishing the wrongdoers, or even casting moral blame on them. Basic principle in the system is subject only to significant exception. However in Miami Gardens, there are cases where a judge orders that a plaintiff be paid a sum of money by a defendant and this is not based on the actual damage that had been suffered in execution of the crime. In most cases Miami courts do not authorize the punitive damages. There are some rare cases where defendant might have done something to the plaintiff which is morally reprehensible such that the interest of society in punishing defendant as well as the deterrent of comparable misconduct outweighs the preference of the civil justice system against the punitive damages. The punitive damages in many cases are not authorized and are only used when the actions of the defendant is seen to be deliberate and deplorable. Further a court considers two factors; actual harm that the plaintiff suffered and the insidious nature of conducts of defendant. Where there is extreme excessive punitive damages, there might be a rule by an appeal court might end up ruling that that the defendant was not afforded the available protection during the court ruling.
The Broward County is home to several cities including Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale. Similar to any large city in the world the County has criminal elements. Compared with other similar U.S cities the overall rate of crime in Broward County is about average. Typically the County has seen murder rates that are lower than average but above average rate for other violent crime but for either case, crime in Broward County is within normal ranges. The areas of Broward County that are patrolled by the office of Sheriff have seen fewer crimes being committed. There is an apparent crime reduction rate in the county with efforts of agency producing the most outstanding results since 2001.Crime has dropped down since 1997 by 53.3% and there was a dramatic drop in one category.
A comparison of 2001 and 2002 shows that there has been a drop in robbery by 6.2%, assault by 21.2% and theft by 15.4%.In 2002, there were more murders than the previous year, having had 33 people murdered. For the part 2 offences there was an overall reduction of crime by 7.6% where crime rates for threats, kidnapping, drugs, embezzlement and bribery were reduced. There was a record increase in fraud, arson, manslaughter where there was one case which was reported compared to none that was reported in 2001.As crime rate decreased there was an increase in clearance rate where there was clearance of 64.6% which represented an increase of 2.7% from 2001.Out of all the property crimes reported, 44% were cleared which showed an increase by 11.4% from 2001. In order to prevent domestic violence, the Sherriff’s office in Broward County partners with Women in Distress, a national, state-certified, accredited full service cater for the County.WID mission is for providing the domestic violence victims with crisis intervention, safe shelter and resources and educating the community through advocacy.
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