Property Crime Fell 18.1 Percent in the Hillsborough Sheriff's Territory This Year — While Florida's Rate Rose
Monthly FBI figures for January through July show reported property crime down sharply in both Tampa Bay sheriff's jurisdictions and up 6.8 percent statewide.
Reported property crime fell this year in the parts of Tampa Bay patrolled by the two county sheriffs, even as Florida's statewide rate climbed. In the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office jurisdiction, the property crime rate from January through July 2026 was 18.1 percent lower than in the same months of 2025, falling from 273 offenses per 100,000 residents to 223, according to monthly figures from the FBI's Crime Data Explorer compiled in a Tampa Journal analysis read by this desk.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office jurisdiction moved the same direction, down 8 percent, from 461 offenses per 100,000 to 424. Florida as a whole went the other way: the statewide rate rose 6.8 percent over the same stretch, from 551 per 100,000 to 589. Both Tampa Bay jurisdictions remained well below the statewide rate, and the gap widened this year as the local rates fell and the state's rose.
The comparison lines up the same seven months in each year so seasonal patterns match, and it carries the usual cautions: the figures count only offenses reported to each sheriff's office — not to city police departments such as Tampa's or St. Petersburg's — recent monthly numbers can be revised as agencies update their reports, and the data describe what was reported, not why the rates moved.
