TALLAHASSEE - Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and members of the Gang Reduction Strategy Executive Committee today released their statewide gang reduction strategy, developed to address the threat of criminal gangs and gang violence. The strategy focuses on the three key goals of stopping the growth of gangs in Florida: prevention and intervention, law enforcement, and the rehabilitation and re-entry of offenders back into society. ...more

June 24, 2008

TAMPA The Polk County Sheriff's Office Sheriff's Training and Respect program – formerly the Polk County Juvenile Boot Camp – will close this month, deputies say. ...more

June 20, 2008

The trial of the two remaining suspects in the beating of a man popularly known as "The Walker" has been pushed back to August. ...more

May 30, 2008

SEBRING — Ross Lewis will graduate in a few weeks, then he is headed off to Tuskegee University in Alabama to study political science, and someday become a lawyer. He's not sure where he would be without the Boys and Girls Club, though. A statewide study recently found that young people who attend Boys and Girls Clubs show higher graduation rates, greater achievement on Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, lower rates of absenteeism and lower rates of criminal offenses. Ross, who has spent his afternoons at the Boys and Girls Club in Sebring for as long as he can remember, said he thinks the study is right on the money. ...more

May 21, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY State budget cuts will impact Pasco County's Juvenile Assessment Center, law enforcement officials said today. ...more

May 2, 2008

SEBRING — A 16-year-old boy was in the care of the Department of Juvenile Justice on Friday after he was accused of sexually molesting a minor child. The teenager was booked Wednesday into the Highlands County Jail on charges of two counts of sexual battery on a child 12-years old or younger and two counts of lewd lascivious behavior on a victim less than 12 years old. ...more

May 2, 2008

SEBRING — The Highlands County Sheriff's Office announced in a press release Tuesday that they have arrested a suspect in connection to a series of car fishing incidents in the Harder Hall and Sparta Road area. ...more

April 22, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG -- One week after his appointment as secretary of Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice, State Rep. Frank Peterman today is expected to endorse local lawyer Darryl Rouson as his successor. ...more

February 15, 2008

Gov. Charlie Crist has designated dates for Tampa Bay area voters to elect a new representative for state House District 55. ...more

February 15, 2008

SEBRING — Photographs from an automated teller machine were used to identify a Sebring man and connect him to 10 car burglaries in the Sun 'n Lake of Sebring subdivision in September. Thomas Bernard Nelson, 18, of 5109 Sturgeon Ave., Sebring, was booked Thursday on charges of two counts of credit card thefts, five counts of grand theft $300 or more but less than $5,000, fraudulent use of a credit card more than two times in six months, 10 counts of burglary of a structure or conveyance while unarmed and three counts of petty theft. Sheriff's investigators prepared seven separate arrest reports listing the instances of car-fishing-type vehicle burglaries, they say, were committed between Sept. 19 and Sept. 20. ...more

February 11, 2008