WINTER HAVEN — Crime suppression is a technique used in modern policing that helps identify troubled neighborhoods, but it also helps law enforcement officers to know the difference between trends and coincidences.
On Christmas evening in the unincorporated area of Lakeland known as Combee Settlement, Russell Jackson, 59, was found murdered in his home at 2422 E. Peachtree Street. Residents of the neighborhood told The Ledger the next day that crime in the area was nothing unusual and some live in fear.
Roy Norris said that he thinks the area has gotten worse over his 13 years as a resident. Norris said he considered going to the Board of County Commissioners to ask for ramped up patrolling.
“There’s so many (crimes) I can’t keep up,” Norris told The Ledger on Dec. 26. “Multiple murders, robberies, break-ins, drugs. I won’t go to the mailbox without being armed.”
For areas like that, Polk County Sheriff’s Office spokesman and former deputy Brian Bruchey said there are crime suppression teams in place. Bruchey noted that the Combee Settlement area commonly experiences a high volume of calls.
“If (deputies) see more things happening in certain areas, they’ll concentrate more on it,” Bruchey said. “They try to target certain areas when things start to bubble up.”
Bruchey said when young deputies start, the term “PROCAP” is “drilled into their heads”. That’s short for proactive community attack on problems.
“We listen to what people in certain areas say and we react to it,” Bruchey said. “We also try to be proactive.”
The PROCAP approach, Bruchey said, follows the broken windows theory, which is the principle that nipping small crimes like vandalism in the bud prevents larger, more significant crimes in the future. Bruchey said there used to be a number of car burglaries reported at the Posner Park shopping center in unincorporated Davenport, but additional patrols fixed the problem — at least for now. One of the ways that the crime suppression teams determine which areas need more attention is through data analysis.
“It’s actually taking police work to a science,” Bruchey said. “We sit down and we look for trends.”
While a place like Combee Settlement has long been regarded as a rough area, there are other locations where things just tend to happen by coincidence.
On Nov. 1, 38-year-old Marvin Briggs was fatally stabbed outside the Circle K, located at 1108 Spirit Lake Road in unincorporated Winter Haven. 40 days later — on Dec. 11 — Melissa Thomas, 62, was shot at the same location by an 18-year-old man deputies later identified as Jahmari McCray and arrested.
“Those two things were kind of unusual at that particular area,” Bruchey said. “I live near there and there’s nothing that indicates it’s a dangerous place.”
Employees at the Circle K declined to be interviewed, but Zillow shows three-bedroom, two-bathroom single-family homes less than 1,800 sq. ft. in area within 800 feet of the gas station selling for between $130,000 and $165,000. The median home value in Winter Haven, according to Zillow, is just under $134,000. If violent crimes were to continue in the area, Bruchey said, deputies would notice through data analysis.
As for Combee Settlement, Norris said he’s thought about trying to start a Citizen’s Assisted Patrol in the area, but worries that having a Sheriff’s Office car parked in his driveway could put a target on his back.
“We’re afraid to go around the neighborhood and try to get people involved,” Norris said. “The Sheriff’s Office is doing all they can, but Combee Settlement is a big area.”
Bruchey didn’t have data immediately available, but thinks the volunteer patrol units are effective in assisting the Sheriff’s Office in its proactive approach.
“I would say it works really well,” Bruchey said. “If you’re going into a community to look for houses to break into, it tells you people are watching.”
Mike Ferguson can be reached at Mike.Ferguson@theledger.com or 863-401-6981. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson.