The crime rate in Suwannee County fell 18.3 percent for the first six months of 2008, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Semi-Annual Uniform Crime Report, released Tuesday. The sheriff’s office reported a 20.6 percent drop in crime while the Live Oak Police Department showed a decrease of 13.3 percent. The crime rate in the state is up 1.6 percent.

“Due to the large number of drug arrests in our county, we are cleaning up our streets and it shows in a 20.6 percent reduction in crime in the (first) six months,” Sheriff Tony Cameron said.

LOPD chief Buddy Williams said his crime rate would be lower if it were not for the recent robberies and burglaries in the city.

“It is good to see that although we are in hard economic times, crime is dropping,” Williams said. “It is good we have good law enforcement officers and cooperative citizens in the area.”

Four hundred sixty-nine crimes were reported here through June of this year. Compared to the first half of 2007, forcible rapes went up from one to six. Four were investigated by the county and two by the city.

Robberies went up as well, from eight to 11. Ten of those occurred within the city. Aggravated assault was down from 118 to 91. Burglary dropped from 133 to 121 in the first half of 2008. Larceny went from 218 to 201, and motor vehicle theft fell from 95 to 38.

The sheriff’s office solved 27.9 percent of crimes reported within its jurisdiction; the police department, 15.9 percent.