Related Legal & Government Sites

  • Florida Current and Archived Statutes - Laws of Florida: A verbatim publication of the general and special laws enacted by the Florida Legislature in a given year and published each year following the regular session of the legislature. It presents the laws in the order in which they are numbered by the Secretary of State, as well as resolutions and memorials passed by the legislature. Source: Florida Senate Glossary
  • Florida Department of Corrections: Offender Information Search
  • Monroe County Clerk’s Office: Monroe County Florida Civil and Criminal Files and Court Information
  • Monroe County Sheriff’s Office (MSCO): Monroe County Florida Sheriff’s Site allowing for inmate searches, arrest records, detention facilities etc. The MCSO Internal Affairs department has information concerning their functions and procedures as the CRB has no jurisdiction to accept complaints regarding the conduct of MSCO employees.
  • Monroe County State Attorney’s Office: Monroe County Florida State Attorney’s Site providing prosecutorial information to the public
  • Florida Attorney General’s Office: The Attorney General is the statewide elected official directed by the Florida Constitution to serve as the chief legal officer for the State of Florida. The Attorney General is responsible for protecting Florida consumers from various types of fraud and enforcing the state’s antitrust laws. Additionally, the Attorney General protects constituents in cases of Medicaid fraud, defends the state in civil litigation cases and represents the people of Florida when criminals appeal their convictions in state and federal courts.
  • Florida State Court System: Florida Supreme Court, Appeals Courts and Circuit Courts
  • The Florida Bar: The Florida Bar, with more than 86,000 members, is the statewide professional and regulatory organization for lawyers.
  • Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE): Florida Administrative Agency regulating the licensing and standards of sworn state law enforcement and corrections officers and law enforcement departments in Florida. FDLE supports the Florida Statistical Analysis Center which collects crime statistics for the State of Florida.

Florida Statistical Analysis Center (FSAC) Crime Statistics

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The Florida Statistical Analysis Center is housed, funded and administered by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement with partial funding from the FBI. The FSAC analyzes criminal justice data and prepares statistical reports for policy makers, planners, and program developers, and serves as a criminal justice resource for academicians, media, students, and others researching crime in Florida. FSAC reports cover a wide range of criminal justice issues and are available to the general public. Learn more about the FSAC and its activities.

Reliability

Reliability of Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data is a constant issue in criminology. There are two principle instruments for measuring crime in the U.S.: the UCR and the National Crime Victimization Survey. The consensus in the field is that the "real" amount of criminal activity lies between these two measures.

UCR numbers reflect the crimes reported by the local agencies (primarily Sheriff Offices and Police Departments) to FDLE. The UCR does not include all offenses reported to the police, but is limited to a well-defined list of reportable offenses. These offenses provide an indicator over time of variations in crime trends. In addition, a number of factors influence the reporting of offense incidents to local agencies. For example, some communities are more likely to report a crime to the police than others are. 

Other factors may include local report-writing policy, manpower allocations, training received by officers on report writing, training received by police records personnel on UCR standards and the decisions and discretion exercised by individuals at every step of the process. As you can see, there are many reasons for variability in reporting between jurisdictions, counties and even states.

Again, UCR is not reporting total crime, but, rather, a select list of crimes reported to the police. This makes the trend data possibly more useful then the actual numbers themselves. It is generally thought that the UCR does a good job of reflecting whether crime is increasing or decreasing. Using the trend, one assumes that any problems in the reporting are consistent over the years even as the problems vary. Nationally, the victimization data (based on interviews of individuals) has mirrored the UCR data trend, which gives us some confidence in its reliability. Simply put, UCR should be used as an indicator of criminal activity but not the ultimate measure.

Additionally, users are cautioned against comparing statistical data of individual reporting units from cities, counties, metropolitan areas, or colleges and universities solely on the basis of their population coverage or student enrollment