EASTPOINT, Fla. (WTXL) - The Franklin County Sheriff's Office is looking into a new way to prevent crime.
Sheriff A.J. Smith wants to put a substation in an Eastpoint neighborhood where deputies respond to hundreds of calls.
Cathy Hatfield has lived in that neighborhood on Ridge Road for 28 years. She and her husband love living in Eastpoint, but they have noticed an uptick in crime.
"We've had a lot of bicycle thefts, and people breaking into people's sheds, things of that nature," said Hatfield. "Drugs do things to people. They change people. That's why we have our fence and our dogs and security cameras."
Sheriff Smith says the area near Ridge and Wilderness Roads has some of the most crime in the county. In the last seven months, the sheriff's office has gotten about 1,300 calls for service; Everything from drugs to domestic violence to burglaries.
"The more the deputies are there, the more they can be proactive and stop crime before it occurs, or catch drug users, drug dealers, people committing thefts," said Sheriff Smith. "A deputy out there doing a report is more effective than one sitting here at the office."
Some neighbors we spoke with are hesitant; they think the sheriff's office is too close by to warrant spending money on a substation.
However, Sheriff Smith says they already have a small building that can be moved to a new location and he's hoping someone will donate a small part of their land for them to use.
The only other cost would be running electric to the substation.
