SARASOTA, Fla. — Sarasota officers are worried about a recent uptick in violent crime. They are reporting thirty shooting calls in the Newtown community since November.
“We want people to know that we are concerned about this,” said Captain Demetri Konstantopoulos.
Investigators said the crimes are happening in about a ten block radius in Newtown. They plan to increase patrols and add more undercover officers to the area.
“We have hot spots that we are going to be looking at,” said Konstantopoulos.
The plan is to target the area for about thirty days to see if there is a dramatic decrease in crime. Konstantopoulos said many of the cases are hard to solve, because of a no-snitching policy that seems to be present.
“You would think if you were a victim of gun violence that you would want to cooperate with the police but that's not always the case,” said Konstantopoulos.
Konstantopoulos said the increase patrols could last into the summer if they are impactful.
