SANFORD, Fla. – The Sanford Police Department credits a long-running special tactical unit – the “Neighborhood Response Unit” – with lowering crime.
The NRU was created by the Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith when he took over shortly after the death of Trayvon Martin and the unrest in Sanford that followed.
Chief Smith’s aim was to work with the community he serves and to solve their crime by listening to them.
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Doru Pop, the sergeant currently supervising the NRU, said 13 years later, the NRU is still getting results.
“The results have been great,” Pop said. “And NRU has been in this role for approximately 13 years. And the numbers speak for themselves. We focus on the most violent in our community and we see the result in a reduction in calls for service, we see a reduction in calls for service related to violent crimes and shootings, even homicides. And of course in decreased drug activity as well, especially in complaint areas.”
The Sanford Police Department said the city saw a 19% decrease in aggravated assault from 2019 to 2023, a 100% decrease in aggravated stalking, a 22% drop in burglary and a 51% decrease in robbery.
However, over the same period from 2019 to 2023, there was a 300% increase in homicides and a 134% hike in motor vehicle theft.
Sgt. Pop said NRU fills the gap between the patrol unit and the SWAT team using intelligence-led policing.
“We provide that technical support and we bridge that gap between the types of calls that our patrol unit responds to and those that rise to the level SWAT [using intelligence-led policing], as opposed to having a broad approach and focusing on perhaps individuals who are not necessarily involved in criminal activity,” Pop said. “We’ve done that for a long time and we’ve gone away from that because we only want to focus on those individuals who cause the most harm to the community and who affect negatively the quality of life of our citizens.”
Sgt. Jason Shor supervised NRU for the past 11 years.
“We actually will position ourselves at times and places where crimes are being committed based on crime stats,” Shor said. “So we look at where burglaries are taking place, where drugs are being sold. Whether it be from Community meetings that we attend, or Crimeline tips can come in, and we’ll use that to deploy our resources.”
Sgt. Shor drives around with his windows down on purpose so people can see him and talk to him, especially in the Historic Goldsboro area of Sanford.
“So years ago we did have some illegal drug activity that would occur on the streets sometimes on street corners in front of convenience stores,” Shor said. “And a lot of our enforcement was focused on that, that type of drug activity does increase all crimes that happen in the city. So we wanted to make sure we started off there.”
Shor said recently the NRU obtained a search warrant for a house on West 15th Street where drug dealing was occurring at all hours of the day and night. The NRU was made aware of the activity through conversations with the community. Today, the house is quiet.
The sergeants said the NRU is so unique that other law enforcement agencies across Florida have reached out seeking advice on how to start an NRU at their departments.