While the crime rate is down 3.2 percent, car break-ins, package thefts, and the occasional violent crime spark ongoing concerns.
Crime continues to decline in Coconut Grove, with the overall rate dropping 3.2 percent so far this year, but residents remain wary of ongoing reports of car break-ins, credit card theft, stolen packages, and a smattering of other violent and non-violent crime.
“Coconut Grove: love the neighborhood, hate the crime. This has been going on for as long as I can remember,” wrote one Center Grove resident last week on the Nextdoor neighborhood forum, commenting on a recent car theft nearby.
In that incident, at about 8:30 p.m. on December 19, a resident heard the sound of her car being started in the driveway of her home near the corner of McDonald Avenue and Day Avenue. She screamed, scaring away the would-be thief.
Also last week, in the 3300 block of Bird Avenue a victim ran outside their home and pepper sprayed a man – a so-called “porch pirate” — trying to steal a package worth $67. The intruder ran away, a police report said.
Despite those incidents, overall rates of many crimes continue a downward trend, explains Miami Police Commander Daniel Kerr, who oversees police operations in the Grove.
Car theft and break-ins, larcenies, and robberies are all down this year through Dec. 17 when compared to the same period last year.
And yet some criminal activity — burglaries, retail thefts, homicides, aggravated batteries, batteries on law enforcement officers, misdemeanor batteries and sex offenses — slightly increased, police records indicate.
Kerr will review 2024 Grove crime statistics and discuss future policing plans at a meeting for Grove residents at Miami City Hall on Dinner Key in mid-January. The date and time are pending. Information about reporting a crime or contact police can be found here.
A key factor in the Grove’s reduced crime rate, Kerr says, is an increased use of technology, especially as applied by an emerging, tech-savvy generation of police officers.
“The younger officers understand the value of data — mapping, heat mapping and the fast flow of information,” Kerr said in an interview with the Coconut Grove Spotlight. “This is keeping us more adept at responding to crimes, properly investigating them and getting those problem people in jail.”
Another factor, Kerr noted, is the department’s focus on identifying and arresting career criminals: “The guy that steals those packages steals 20 packages. The one who steals cars steals 20 cars.”
Through mid-December 2024 the most committed crimes in the Grove were retail thefts (159), larceny (143), car break-ins (99), burglaries (64), misdemeanor batteries (59), stolen cars (48) and aggravated batteries (21). Police also investigated three homicides and five sex offenses.
The majority of violent crimes have occurred in the West Grove, according to the crime data website CrimeMapping, which links police incident reports and their locations on an interactive map.
These include a justifiable homicide in the 3800 block of Oak Avenue. In that Oct. 3 evening incident, a man — whom Kerr described as “a problem child for us” — saw another man attacking his girlfriend and went after the assailant. In the confrontation — fueled by drugs, Kerr said — the man choked the assailant, who died.
Leon Leonard, a former Miami Police sergeant, civic activist and lifelong West Grove resident, said: “The drug activity is a core reason why you have assaults and homicides.”
According to Leonard, who retired last summer after 33 years on the force, two street corners in the West Grove are active spots for buying and selling illegal drugs.
While Kerr attributed socio-economic conditions in West Grove to its higher rates of violent crime, he also noted the easy access – via U.S. 1 and Grand Avenue and Douglas Road — in and out of the neighborhood.
That same easy-in-easy-out access is a factor in crime rates in Center Grove and North Grove, Kerr said. Meanwhile, South Grove’s relative isolation from major throughfares – escape routes, as Kerr describes them, contributes to its relatively low crime rate.
Kerr said car theft remains a problem throughout the Grove.
One crime ring active in Grove neighborhoods targeted sports cars and expensive luxury vehicles which were driven directly to Port Everglades in Broward County to be shipped out of the country.
Around 80 percent of car break-ins and theft involve unlocked cars, Kerr said.
In addition to car theft, the most frequently reported crimes in Center Grove this year were fraud, vandalism and larceny. Those rates, Kerr notes, may appear higher than surrounding areas due to its increased population density.
Within the village center and the commercial area around Dinner Key and the marinas, the most commonly reported crimes in 2024 were assault, larceny and car break-ins, police records show.
North Grove recently suffered a rash of car break-ins and thefts. Among the reports: On November 27 a man entered his garage in the 2600 block of Overbrook Street and discovered that his electric bike had been stolen.
Despite such incidents, Kerr is quick to note the Grove’s overall drop in crime in 2024. He also cautions that not all reported crimes are what they appear, noting that data on credit card theft is often linked to victim’s home address rather than the store or other location where it disappeared.
Marlene Erven, president of the North Grove’s Coconut Grove Park Homeowners Association, agrees that crime appears to be abating in her neighborhood.
“While October saw five incidents and November had eight, we are pleased to report no crime incidents so far in December in our neighborhood of 500 homes in North Grove,” Erven said.
