PORT ST LUCIE, Fla. — Port St. Lucie police are addressing crime concerns in the Tradition area after a shooting in the Town Park at Tradition community and a rash of catalytic converter thefts in Tradition and St. Lucie West.
Police Chief Richard Del Toro said the catalytic converter thefts occurred between Tuesday and Wednesday. He said six Toyotas were targeted, five of which were Tacomas and one was a Sequoia.
"This is a common problem throughout the state of Florida," Del Toro said.
Mike Cicio is one of the six people police said were victims of the crime. Cicio said he woke up Wednesday morning to find his converter cut out of his Toyota.
"Extremely frustrating and it's a cost that I didn't want to bear right before the holidays," he said.
Cicio said he's seen significant growth in the area, and said with the Town Park shooting just behind his apartment, he couldn't help but feel the growth was connected.
"This intersection has just been taken over by traffic, it’s nonstop," Cicio said. "The more people you put in here, the more crime is going to increase."
It's a fear WPTV has heard from a lot of you, and a fear Del Toro said he has heard as well.
"I can say the city is the safest in the state," Del Toro said, "but if people don't feel safe, that doesn’t mean anything."
Del Toro said the crime rate in Tradition isn't spiking and, if anything, he said there's a downward trend in crime there.
However, with the population of Tradition alone now bigger than the city of Stuart, the police department has made adjustments.
Del Toro said at the beginning of last year, the police department had 1.2 officers per 1,000 people. With the population surging, that put the city's officer to citizen ratio at the second lowest in the state of Florida, and almost half the national average, which is 2.1 officers per 1,000 people.
Del Toro said he wants to up that ratio to at least 1.5 to 1.6 officers per 1,000 people, and said already the ratio is up to 1.35 officers.
"Our city council made a big investment last year, adding 30 officers to the force bringing us to 320 officers total," Del Toro said.
The department's also added a Tradition sub-station staffed with 24 officers, and Del Toro plans to continue to add more officers over the next five years.
"We’ve changed as a community. This was a bedroom retirement community, and that ratio was probably good for that time," Del Toro said. "But with all the growth that were having, we want to continue to take it to the next level."
Cicio said he's thankful for that, knowing growth isn't easily controlled, but the reaction to it, almost always is.
"We're proud of our local police department and we know that they’re doing their best effort to try and stop this," Cicio said, "and we hope they continue to do so."
Del Toro is also hoping to host a Town Hall in Tradition within the next month to hear concerns from residents there and address them.