Crime rate down, arrests up in unincorporated Lee County

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Crime scene tape. File photo

FORT MYERS, Fla. Crime in unincorporated Lee County decreased by 12 percent during 2016, and violent crime was down 3 percent, according to a Lee County Sheriff’s Office study.

The number of homicide arrests tripled, from six in 2015 to 18 last year, the sheriff’s office said. Drug arrests jumped by 27 percent.

It’s the ninth straight year the crime rate has declined, and crime has dropped by 52.3 percent since Sheriff Mike Scott took office in 2005, according to the sheriff’s office.

“The hard working deputies of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office are absolutely ‘dialed in’ when it comes to fighting crime,” Scott said in a statement. “These latest crime statistics continue to prove that.”

See the full 2016 Uniform Crime Report here:

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