Orange County sheriff hosts community briefing to help reduce crime

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County Sheriff John Mina hosted the first ever "Focus" event on Tuesday. Mina went over several topics that include crime, community statistics and solutions.

"Information for you that you can take back to your coworkers, friends, and family,"  Mina said.

Mina explained Orange County is growing continuously, with 1,500 people moving to the area each week. He said because of that, the agency is hiring more deputies. So far, they've hired 142 deputies this year.

Another topic he discussed was school safety. Mina said each Orange County Public School has an armed school resource officer.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office also has real-time access to roughly 6,000 security cameras in Orange County schools.

"This is exactly what we wanted for people to know what's happening in the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Not only what we are doing for our crime reduction efforts, but also what we are doing in the community," Mina said.

Mina went over the opioid epidemic, which he says is a constant battle not only locally, but across the country. However, he said overdose deaths are down more than 10% from last year in the Orange County Sheriff's Office jurisdiction.

In July, Mina said 50 guns were stolen in several burglaries. He is calling for a law that would require pawn and gun shops to secure their firearms in order to keep criminals away.

Mina said his top priority is making sure that Orange County remains a great place to live, work, and visit, which is why they are leaning towards more technology to crack down on crime.

The Sheriff's Office also introduced their comfort dog, Daisy, who could help victims of domestic violence or other types of crime.


About the Author:

Ezzy Castro is a multimedia journalist on News 6's morning team who has a passion for telling the stories of the people in the Central Florida community. Ezzy worked at WFOR CBS4 in South Florida and KBMT in Beaumont, Texas, where she covered Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Being from Miami, Ezzy loves Cuban coffee and croquetas!

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