Originally Published by WBTW Dec 30, 2014
FLORENCE COUNTY, SC - Today's traffic could quite well be tomorrow's crime
"Studies show that there is a correlation between vehicle crashes and crime in a particular area,” said Major Mike Nunn with the Florence County Sheriff's Office.
For the Florence County Sheriff's Office, numbers don't lie.
It's all thanks to DDACTS or ‘Data Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety,' which uses crime and crash data to point areas in the county where both tend to happen the most.
"Criminals use vehicles to get to and from crime scenes and a lot of times they disregard the traffic law in the process,” Nunn mentioned.
The Florence County Sheriff's Office is the first to state to launch DDACTS.
The sheriff's office has a variety of "hot spots" in the county they patrol.
One wrong turn could potentially lead to spotting the "bad guys.”
"Officer presence changes behavior. It's instinctive almost. A good example, driving down the road way and we see a police officer running radar. Well our first indistinct is to let off the gas pedal even if we are speeding our not,” He explained.
Since June, the area surrounding Pine Street went from 12 crashes and 4 crimes down to 3 crashes.
The same is true for i-95 and 52, which sIw wrecks drop from 29 to 12.
"This is an example of using technology to our benefit,” added Nunn.
When officers are patrolling the area either in a marked or unmarked vehicle, you'll see the rear blue lights on.
Hot spots change monthly.
Here is a list of the different hot spots within the county:
•Second Loop-Third Loop-Cashua Drive area, Mayfair Terrace, Rosedale Street, Patton Drive, Chadwick subdivision;
•Howe Springs Road & Pamlico Highway, Hewitt and Brandonwoods subdivision;
•Howe Springs Road, Tara Village subdivision and Southern Pines;
•S. Morris Street in Lake City, SC.