Vox Populi: How Comments from Residents of Orange County Demonstrate a Lack of Policing in Some Areas

I outlined in a previous story that there is a crime epidemic in the Orlando area that is not being addressed by Sheriff Mina and other local leaders such as OPD Chief Rolón, and crime statistics illustrate that point. However, raw numbers are impersonal and don’t properly convey the human impact on individuals or the community caused by the Sheriff’s and Chief’s neglect.

Local social sites and apps like Nextdoor and Ring Neighbors are potentially powerful tools for residents who wish to share information and monitor the safety of their neighborhoods. Competent law enforcement agencies leverage these tools for criminal intelligence and community outreach, but the Orange County Sheriff’s Office maintains minimal presence on Ring Neighbors and only a token presence on Nextdoor, and OPD’s visible presence doesn’t seem much better.

When I began my analysis of crime trends in the Orlando area and efforts to lobby for more law enforcement action to abate those trends, I started to collect comments on Ring Neighbors and Nextdoor that I saw myself or that were sent to me by residents of one particularly troubled area neglected by Sheriff Mina, Sector 1 (specifically Zones 13C and 14A). I also collected comments from OPD’s North Division, Sector B.

Facing a rising number of crimes and concomitant lack of action by the Sheriff and Chief, those residents frequently voice their frustrations on these neighborhood networking services. Below is a selection of screenshots of comments that reflect the frustrations of Orange County residents of Sector 1 and North Division as their Sheriff and Police Chief ignore their concerns. These comments reveal frustration, anger, hopelessness, and fear…and Sheriff Mina and Chief Rolón’s apathy prevent them from addressing these concerns. Any potential identifying information of the posters has been redacted.

A common theme is a lack of response to issues and concerns in this area:

Another frequent theme is a lack of visible patrols, which emboldens criminals and leads to a lack of faith in law enforcement from citizens:

The apathy of the Sheriff and Chief for the concerns of their residents and their negligence in failing to respond to their needs causes many of locals to feel unsafe in their homes and neighborhoods:

When residents reach out to OCSO and OPD, their problems aren’t addressed. Long response times, failure to respond to calls, and failing to act on resident’s reports are common complaints. Some residents even hint at possible police corruption (although those claims are unsubstantiated as far as I know). Even when residents give pictures, video, and suspect or vehicle information to deputies, there is rarely any follow-up or resolution.

A drug related altercation involving a sword on a neighborhood street in Sector 1. In any other place this would be considered unusual. — from Nextdoor

A house full of heavily armed, known criminals is a constant source of gunfire in a residential neighborhood. The police have done nothing and take hours to respond even during incidents of live gunfire.

I noticed that there are some common sentiments expressed in these comments and posts which stood out when I was arranging them for this article. Some variation of the following sentiments or observations were frequently repeated:

• No patrols / need for more patrols or police presence
• Police don’t show up or respond to calls
• Police don’t do anything about crime

Area residents also aren’t shy about sharing pictures of the many burglarized automobiles in their community, a trend that has plagued the area and remains unaddressed by law enforcement:

The only response from OCSO to car burglaries is to lecture people about locking their cars and hiding their valuables. As you can see, that doesn’t help — the criminals just smash windows or steal parts from the outside of the cars.

Auto burglaries are a nightly occurrence in some parts of Sector 1 and North Division. Residents have told me that law enforcement has refused to answer these calls anymore, advising them to fill out an online report.

Why aren’t the Sheriff and Chief assigning more deputies/officers to the most crime-ridden areas and prioritizing the rich, white areas where crime is low?

It appears that some officers in OPD have just given up and are telling people to not even bother locking their cars anymore.

This knife-wielding man threatened a resident of an apartment complex and tried to remove her ring camera with a switchblade after she called the police numerous times to report that he was openly dealing drugs in the hallways of her complex and had video proof. The police refused to help her. I’ve heard a handful of accounts (anonymous and unsubstantiated) of deputies and officers being in league with drug dealers in this area and being paid to look the other way.

So far I’ve specifically pointed out the frustrated complaints from residents of just area of Orange County. Are people in other parts of the county making similar complaints? A recent survey conducted by a local crime task force had some familiar comments in it, some of which I’ll share here (as is, with typos):

“As a victim of a home burglary the increase in crime in my community is concerning. We have very limited sheriff patrols and yet there needs to be an increase in patrolling and community outreach to thwart young adults who are vandalizing cars and burglarizing our homes.”

“I have had top ranked members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office along with Orlando Police Department tell me our neighborhood is unwatched due to them being stretched thin to always cover other community crimes like Pine Hills, Downtown, etc. That is not fair when there’s emergencies like violent domestics, fights, robberies, batteries, break-ins, being reported even hit and run crashes but told those are low priority as well.”

“Maybe if the Sheriff’s Dept showed up in less than 3 hours when a resident calls after being threatened by a knife wielding drug dealer”

“As a sheriff how about taking a stand against crime first and worry about your political career second. Just a thought”

“Build a better relationship with the community overall (sheriff local elected politicians and everyone in the middle) it seems you guys don’t care which is probably true but can you all at least pretend to care give us a little show. Not once has my sheriff or elected officials ever reached out if they have it’s a flyer in the mail to vote for them. It starts with the leaders actually communicating with us because you all live in lala land. Let me add the sheriff has literally scheduled “town halls” with constituents last minute and doesn’t announce them just secretly but the time and date the night before on the website hidden. How are we supposed to share how we feel and what we need when elected officials suppress our voice when we don’t agree with them”

“I am 43 and have lived in Williamsburg for 10 years. We have young man a few houses down that would burglarize house, at one point he was arrested for home invasion. I was concerned when he got out and I am the one that let all my neighbors know to be on the look out. When I was concerned I emailed our sheriffs liaison and he was actually very rude. sometimes a negative experience like that will dishearten citizens, make them not bother calling. I miss the days when the motto was protect and serve. The few times I have had encounters with law enforcement I did not really find them to be helpful.”

“The only time we see sheriff office in our neighborhood is when the homeowners association pays them to be here on overtime or after shots are fired. The response time the last time I called was over 30 minutes.”

“Please remove John Mina as Sheriff and remove the State Attorney. Both are incompetent and corrupt and it is costing lives.”

“Lumited deputies, usually two, for this area and if an issue sometimes deputies have to cone from other areas resulting in delays up to 30 plus minutes.”

“I’m a retired OCSO deputy. I moved out of the county because of the increased violent crime and concerns for my family’s safety. I lived in my neighborhood for 30 years and can count on one hand how many times I saw a deputy in my neighborhood patrolling. By the way, I didn’t live in an exclusive or gated community. I believe OCSO can provide a better level of service for the citizenry if they focused more of their resources on criminal apprehension and zero tolerance. I think this survey missed the mark by not including specific reference to any kind of drug activity. After all, law enforcement is ALWAYS blaming violent crime on drugs.”

Get rid of corrupt deputy’s such as [redacted] who makes excuses for people who have broken the law that he is friends with. I’ve seen [redacted] take bribes from [redacted]. [redacted] who is not law enforcement tells people he is then harasses, stalks and threatens people only to have [redacted] make excuses for his behavior. It’s not just [redacted] that gets a free pass but also his friends. We’ve been threatened, stalked and vandalised and [redacted] did nothing but make excuses for this. We’re not allowed to file a police report on most things do to these deputy’s out here playing favorites. They are going to make the department look like shite when the people being harassed start putting this stuff online. We record everything out here. The deputy’s in the [redacted] are corrupt and sooner rather than later someone is going to get hurt or killed. [redacted] carries a gun and I’ve seen him pull it on people and [redacted] let’s him get away with this stuff.

Wait time for 911 is ridiculous. We’ve had someone shoot through our window and then no follow up from OCSO. Increasing crime on the daily and NO POKICE PRESENCE WHATSOEVER

Our residents are reluctant to “bother” OPD for suspicious activity and vandalism, which makes us a target for more.

I was a victim of gun violence. It’s been years no arrests not even so much as a case number was generated. But that’s neither here nor there. My issue is when someone does come forward y’all and when I’m saying y’all I mean OPD gave the person the info and told them who reported them. Soooo nope see and hear nothing is how the community moves.

I wish the OPD would patrol more on Central from Orange Ave. to Rosalind especially on weekends (after dark)

OPD officers need sensitivity training on how to interact better with the people they are to protect. Keeping our neighborhoods safe means they should respond to calls faster and not have a cocky attitude when they feel it’s not that important. Come with solutions, not excuses why they can’t do anything.

Police don’t have a duty to protect citizens so even with a larger law enforcement presence you guys don’t and won’t help. You leave citizens in danger yet you guys are quick to arrest citizens for standing up to these juvenile thugs. Shame on OPD!

I feel like a stronger OPD/community peace officer presence there would help … make people feel welcome and safe.

I have had top ranked members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office along with Orlando Police Department tell me our neighborhood is unwatched due to them being stretched thin to always cover other community crimes like Pine Hills, Downtown, etc.

Orlando Police will NOT write tickets for illegally parked cars (on a public street) in my neighborhood. They will respond to the call (20m-1.5hrs later) LOOK at the illegally parked car, and drive away. If this happened in the downtown area, being parked the opposite direction, they would be ticketed/towed immediately. Orlando Police need to DO THEIR JOB that WE are paying them to do!

After reading the frustrated pleas of the residents of Orlando, how can Sheriff Mina or Chief Rolón claim that there isn’t a crime problem in the Orlando area? How can Mina and Rolón in good conscience continue to claim that they are doing a good job? I’ll let you decide.