Property crimes down 45% along Wells Road

An assistant chief with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said property crimes have decreased by 45% along Wells Road over the past year since the sheriff’s office and the county launched the Gateway to Clay initiative.

“That’s unbelievable,” said Assistant Chief Dominic Paniccia of the trend prior to a community walk along the corridor. “Even a 10% decrease would’ve been very good.”

County officials launched the Gateway to Clay initiative in October last year to upgrade the area’s deteriorating infrastructure and stop rising crime rates along the county’s northernmost east-west thoroughfare.

Paniccia credited increased sheriff’s office resources dedicated to the area for the safety improvement.

“We spent a lot of money putting proactive teams together with a sergeant and five proactive units that did nothing but worked this area for suspicious people, for crimes in progress, and to supplement those other units.”

Paniccia said business owners have responded to the county’s efforts by sprucing up their properties.

He also said efforts focusing on shoplifting at the Orange Park Mall and other large businesses along the road, like Home Depot, have put a dent in the property crime rate.

County Commissioner Jim Renninger, who represents the area, said better communications between county officials and business owners have helped reduce crime.

“We’ve had some meetings with the mall on issues,” he said. “We’ve had meetings with the extended stay (hotel) on a lot of issues there, and so we’ve solved some of those problems because we knew about some of those problems.”

Paniccia added that addressing issues immediately has helped tamp down offenses. When two groups of teenagers recently fought within the mall, he met with mall management the following day.

“The very next morning, I’m in there with that management,” he said. “We’re sitting down; we’re trying to come up with solutions to the problems.”

Officials added that improved technology is also contributing to the crime downturn.

Ashley Barber, the sheriff’s office’s assistant chief of communications, said the office can now place a device near video cameras owned by businesses, allowing the sheriff’s office to view the video in real time.

“This time last year, we had a problem:” she said, “we couldn’t integrate with our video management system, but with this, it will integrate with any type of video system, so we can immediately click a button and pull up a business’s cameras.”

Sheriff Michelle Cook called the video surveillance a force multiplier, adding that her deputies are actively recruiting businesses to share their video with law enforcement.

“We’d love to blanket this entire area with real-time crime camera access,” she said.

Barber added that the system: Fusus also saves business owners time when detectives investigate thefts. She also said business owners can alternatively register their cameras with the sheriff’s office.

“Instead of knocking on everybody’s doors (asking): Hey, can I get your cameras? We already know who has cameras, and then we can directly contact them through email, or they can put this device on their camera system, and then we already have it.”

Paniccia said cameras also serve as a deterrent, noting that during a recent weekend, a vendor operated a carnival in the mall’s parking lot and another business operated a haunted house within the facility.  The sheriff’s office erected a large camera system on a tower with a view of the entire parking lot and posted a surveillance trailer near the haunted house.  

“We had the mall, the carnival, and the haunted house down there, and we had zero issues,” said Cook.