- December 13, 2025
Flagler County crime is down 4.2%. Officials say being proactive makes all the difference.
It’s about 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 2.
Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputy Trevor Jacob is patrolling his section, which includes the P, W and R sections.
Earlier that morning, he made a traffic stop that led to an arrest in relation to a domestic violence case.
That set him back on other calls that were classified as “low priority,” according to the software on his Dell laptop screen, mounted in his cruiser.
As the afternoon wore on, Jacob attended to all the calls in the queue, and so it was time for him to do security checks and drive through neighborhoods.
As he drives along Belle Terre Parkway, he notices an abandoned car on the left side of the southbound lanes.
He whips a U-turn in front of Wadsworth Elementary School to check it out.
“If it’s abandoned, I’ll just have it towed,” he says, as he calls in the license plate to dispatch.
But as he gets out of his cruiser, a woman —who is holding a backpack — and a younger girl cross the northbound lanes, heading back to the green car.
Jacob is told the car overheated. But he wants the woman to be safe, so he waits for traffic to pass and pushes the car onto the westbound grass, where she will wait for help to come.
For Jacob, this is another example of being proactive, something all of the law enforcement agencies in Flagler County believe helped reduce Flagler’s crime rate in 2011.
According to numbers released April 30 by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Flagler County’s crime rate dipped by 4.2%, falling in line with the 0.8% reduction statewide.
However, while some things, such as burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts went down, aggravated assaults went up in 2011. According to the stats, there were 177 aggravated assault offenses (see the box for domestic violence-related offenses) in 2010 compared to 254 in 2011, a 43.5% jump.
Aggravated assault is a threat by word or act in which a person has a fear that the threat is capable of being carried out.
Aggravated assaults are difficult to prevent from a law enforcement perspective, said Jeff Hoffman, chief of the Bunnell Police Department.
“A lot of those stats are domestic related,” he said. “People fight over money. ... From a law enforcement perspective, domestic (issues) are hard to prevent.”
Capt. Lynne Catoggio, of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, said the economy is a factor in the increase.
“The stressers of no job, no money,” Catoggio said. “Then they turn to alcohol or drugs and that’s just a vicious cycle and compounds the problem.”
Hoffman said the decrease in the overall crime rate follows a national trend. The deputies on the streets are making an impact in the community, he said.
“You have to be proactive, and you have to follow up on stuff if you want to make a dent in crime,” Hoffman said. “You have to get out there and do the job.”
Following up is Jacob’s specialty.
As 6 p.m. rolls around, Jacob, who will begin his third year with the Sheriff’s Office on May 15, is almost ready to end his 12-hour shift. He’s been at it since about 5:30 in the morning.
Whether he’s the one fighting crime or if it’s another deputy, Jacob knows crime won’t ever go away. But there are deterrents. And it all starts with being a presence in the neighborhoods.
“It’s about that little connection (with the residents),” Jacob said. “They see us and we wave back and they feel safe. It’s all about customer service — making people happy. That’s what I always try to do.”
FLAGLER BEACH: SMALLER TOWN, BETTER RELATIONSHIPS
To Flagler Beach Police Department Administrative Sgt. Frank Parrish, crime runs in seasons.
Seemingly unimpressed by the 4.2% drop in overall crime last year, he said: “Unfortunately, in our business, there are always ups and downs.”
When numbers begin to spike, he said, the department beefs up patrols and increases its visibility in those specific areas of the city. He calls it “tightening our belts.”
“(Flagler Beach) is smaller … so we can actually take more time on certain cases, where larger communities aren’t going to have a lot of time,” Parrish said. “We can give … more of a personal touch.”
Because of the city’s smaller size, compared to that of Flagler or Volusia counties, Parrish’s department also doesn’t have to function so much out of “working priority,” he added, tackling only the problems it has time for. So the stats, for him, remain “pretty much on target.”
The department has the perk of being able to collaborate with neighboring agencies, as well.
A joint training session with Bunnell was held May 1, for example. One specific Flagler Beach police officer is also a member of the county’s SWAT team. And during the city’s annual Fourth of July event, county deputies show up to assist.
But when it comes to the 43.5% jump in aggravated assault charges in Flagler County in 2011, however, Parrish’s theories begin to extend outward.
“It didn’t seem like we had these kinds of problems before the economy went down,” he said. “Times are hard for families, and a lot of them don’t have a job, and stress just builds up. Next thing you know, they’re feuding. … And alcohol is tied to it 99% of the time.”
Still, despite the job’s challenges, Parrish, a 28-year Flagler Beach Police Department veteran, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’m a little sensitive to this community,” he said. “This is my home. I used to run around here in the streets when we had dirt roads. I love it, and I intend to retire here.”
—Mike Cavaliere
Bunnell: Hoffman steps in as Police Chief
Jeff Hoffman, a former captain in the Daytona Beach Police Department, was sworn in last week as the new chief of the Bunnell Police Department.
In Daytona Beach, Hoffman was a patrol district commander and was in charge of approximately 70 officers.
Now, he’ll be the chief of 10 full-time officers, in Bunnell, as well as four reserve officers. (Two positions are currently vacant.)
“I always thought to myself that I could go one step beyond where I was as a captain — either as a deputy chief or maybe even a chief,” Hoffman said Thursday, almost one week since he was sworn in.
“Most of my career was spent at the operations level, and so I have a lot of street experience,” he said. “I’d like to bring some of those tricks and things I’ve learned over the years to the relatively young department that is (in Bunnell) right now.”
The main goal, Hoffman said, is to create and maintain a professional law enforcement agency.
“I’ve met a lot of people in the last few days, and it’s like a family here,” he said. “I’m really excited to be here, and I’m eager to deliver a very professional police department that this community obviously expects and deserves.”
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BY OFFENSE TYPE
Primary Offense 2010 2011 Percent Change
Murder 0 1 NA
Manslaughter 0 0 0%
Forcible Rape 5 1 -80%
Forcible Sodomy 1 2 100%
Forcible Fondling 2 8 300%
Aggravated Assault 64 122 90.6%
Aggravated Stalking 1 0 NA
Simple Assault 504 398 -21%
Threat/Intimidation 21 26 23.8%
TOTAL 601 561 -6.7%
*Source: Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Flagler County
BY THE NUMBERS
POPULATION
2010: 94,984
2011: 96,241
TOTAL CRIME INDEX
2010: 2,480
2011: 2,376
PERCENT CHANGE 2010/2011
-4.2%
MURDER
2010: 0
2011: 1
FORCIBLE RAPE
2010: 16
2011: 19
ROBBERY
2010: 36
2011: 37
AGGRAVATED ASSAULT
2010: 177
2011: 254
BURGLARY
2010: 556
2011: 505
LARCENY
2010: 1,591
2011: 1,485
MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT
2010: 104
2011: 75
CRIME RATE PER 1,000
2010: 2,611.0
2011: 2,468.8
PERCENT CHANGE 2010/2011
-5.4%
PERCENT CLEARED
2010: 24.2%
2011: 29.3%
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