The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is committed to improving relationships and building trust in our communities. The Crime Prevention Unit is responsible for designing and promoting the agency’s goals based on the identifiable needs.

Crime Prevention is defined as the anticipation, recognition and appraisal of a crime risk and the initiation of action to remove or reduce the crime through public education. The Crime Prevention Unit offers various crime awareness/prevention programs which include, but not limited to:

• Neighborhood Watch
• Business Watch
• Workplace Violence
• Internet Safety
• Live Safe
• Residential Burglary Prevention
• Residential Security Survey
• Commercial Burglary Prevention
• Business Security Survey
• Identify Theft
• Personal Safety
• Operation Identification
• Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)

The Crime Prevention Unit consists of a Sergeant, Corporal and five Deputies that have received their practitioner’s training through the Florida Crime Prevention Training Institute, Office of Attorney General.

If you would like information of Crime Prevention or to have someone speak to your organization, call the Crime Prevention Unit at (727) 582-5661 or (727) 582-5600.  The unit is located at 11473 Ulmerton Road, Largo, FL  33778.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Crime Prevention Unit is committed to “Leading the Way for a Safer Pinellas”.

People often ask us what the best security system is to protect their property.  And the answer is easy, LOCK YOUR DOORS.  Most crimes are crimes of opportunity, which means the suspect was given the opportunity to commit the crime.  Crime requires three elements; opportunity, desire and ability.  If you take one of the three away, the suspect won’t be able to commit the crime or steal your belongings.  For example, if I leave a camera in the car with the door unlocked, he has both the desire and the opportunity – the camera is present, and the ability – the door is unlocked.  If we take the opportunity away by locking the door, our camera should be safe.

However, we should always keep our valuables out of sight, such as; keeping them in the trunk or glove box.  During the past few months 76% of all the cars that were burglarized, were because of unlocked doors.