Property crime drops 18.1% in Hillsborough sheriff's jurisdiction as Florida rises

Property crime fell this year in the areas covered by the Hillsborough County and Pinellas County sheriff's offices. Across Florida, it went the other way.

In the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office jurisdiction, the property crime rate from January through July 2026 was 18.1% lower than in the same months of 2025, according to monthly crime figures. The rate fell from 273 offenses per 100,000 to 223 offenses per 100,000.

Statewide, the rate rose 6.8% over the same stretch. It climbed from 551 offenses per 100,000 for January through July 2025 to 589 offenses per 100,000 for the same months this year.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office jurisdiction also saw a decline, though a smaller one. Its rate fell 8%, from 461 offenses per 100,000 to 424 offenses per 100,000.

Set side by side, the year-over-year changes run in opposite directions: both sheriffs' jurisdictions down, the state up.

Hillsborough's decline was the steeper one

Measured against the state, Hillsborough's result was the stronger of the pair. Its percent change came in 24.9 percentage points below Florida's.

Pinellas also beat the statewide trend. Its change was 14.8 percentage points below Florida's, a smaller gap than Hillsborough's but still a move in the opposite direction from the rest of the state.

For residents on the Hillsborough side of the bay, the drop means the rate of reported property crime in the sheriff's jurisdiction is lower than it was a year ago. On the Pinellas side, the rate also fell, but by less.

Pinellas still carries the higher rate

The direction of change is only part of the comparison. Pinellas started the period with a higher property crime rate than Hillsborough and ended it that way.

From January through July 2026, the Pinellas sheriff's jurisdiction recorded 424 offenses per 100,000. The Hillsborough sheriff's jurisdiction recorded 223 offenses per 100,000. Both remained below the statewide figure of 589 offenses per 100,000.

The month-by-month record shows how each jurisdiction's rate moved against Florida's from January 2025 through July 2026, the latest complete month available.

What the comparison covers

The comparison uses the same months in each year, January through July, so seasonal patterns line up. The 2026 totals include all seven months of data for the Hillsborough sheriff's jurisdiction and all seven months for Pinellas.

Each total adds up the monthly population-adjusted rates for those months. That makes the totals useful for comparing one year with the next and one jurisdiction with another, but they are not the same as a full-year rate.

The figures describe offenses reported to each sheriff's office, and they do not explain why rates changed.

For residents of the Pinellas sheriff's jurisdiction, the year brought a lower rate than last year, but still a higher one than across the bay in the Hillsborough sheriff's jurisdiction. For both, the rate remained below the state's, and the gap with Florida widened as the statewide rate climbed.

About the data

We compared monthly population-adjusted property crime rates for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and Florida statewide, summing the rates for January through July in 2025 and in 2026. We then calculated the percent change for each and the difference, in percentage points, between each sheriff's change and the state's.

• Recent monthly crime figures can be revised as agencies update their reports, so the 2026 totals may change.
• The sheriffs' figures cover only offenses reported to those agencies, not every law enforcement agency in each county.
• Reported crime counts only offenses that come to law enforcement's attention, and the data does not show why rates rose or fell.

Property crime: a category of offenses in which property is taken or damaged, as opposed to crimes of violence against a person. Population-adjusted rate: the number of reported offenses scaled to the number of residents, which allows places of different sizes to be compared. Percentage points: the simple difference between percentages, used here to compare each sheriff's change with Florida's.

Sources

• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office: property crime, monthly, 2024-11 to 2026-10, latest period October 2026, released Oct. 15, 2026; retrieved Oct. 16, 2026. Data
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer: Pinellas County Sheriff's Office: property crime, monthly, 2024-11 to 2026-10, latest period October 2026, released Oct. 15, 2026; retrieved Oct. 16, 2026. Data