Jail booking log analysis for 2024
ANALYSIS
BY LEN CABRERA
As we construct the Jail Booking Log each day, we track the number of individuals booked, the number and types of charges for each individual, the demographics of the individuals booked, the types of arrests (warrant, mittimus, or other), and the agencies that made the arrests. For four years now, we’ve compiled this data and compared it to previous years. Caveats about the data and information about the limitations of our analysis can be found at the end of the article.
Total bookings were down 1.4% over 2023
In 2024, there were 6,759 entries in the booking log for the Alachua County Jail (an entry is one person booked on one day); the number was 6,857 in 2023, so there were 1.4% fewer entries in 2024. These numbers do not count the total number of charges, as a single individual can have multiple charges or appear multiple times in the log in a single day. Of the 6,759 bookings, about 40% (2,709) had multiple charges, about the same percentage as in 2023.
These figures do not necessarily reflect new local crimes because some are for charges coming from another county or another state. Also, some are more administrative in nature, such as failure to appear for a hearing (FTA) or violations of probation (VOP). If only the new local bookings are counted, there were 4,744 in 2024, 0.1% more than the 4,739 in 2023.
Comparisons of the number and types of charges
There were 16,080 individual charges, 3.9% less than the 16,741 individual charges in 2023. There were 11 individuals booked who had over 50 charges in a single booking. Six of those were people violating injunctions for domestic violence, usually violating no contact orders with multiple phone calls. Four of the eleven involved some type of credit card, bank, or ID fraud.
As we did in 2023, we classified charges into 37 broad categories. These were only tallied for new local arrests. When considering only these 37 categories, there were 11,754 charges in 2024, 8.1% fewer than the 12,788 in 2023 despite having 0.4% more bookings with charges that fall into these categories (4,639 vs. 4,621).
The seeming contradiction between 0.4% more bookings and 8.1% fewer charges is explained by a couple of outliers in both 2023 and 2024. On June 7, 2023, two individuals were each booked with 1,764 counts of “possess/receive/retain stolen credit/debit card.” On October 28, 2024, one individual was booked with 2,043 counts of credit card and ID fraud. If these three bookings are removed, the total for local charges in our 37 tracked categories goes from 9,260 in 2023 to 9,711 in 2024, a 4.9% increase.
Of the 6,759 bookings, 12.3% (834) were additional charges or warrants for people already in the jail (i.e., they had “IN HOUSE” written somewhere in the jail booking log), considerably more than the 10.8% (739) in 2023. Probation violators (i.e., VOP, MVOP, or FVOP) made up 14.7% (996) in 2024 and 14.6% (1,001) in 2023. Exactly 3% (206) were people who had been sentenced to serve time at the county jail rather than a state correctional facility (sentences of 364 days or less), about the same as the 3.2% (219) of bookings in 2023.
Other than the people being sentenced, detainees were only accused of a crime and had not been tried or convicted when they were booked into the jail.
Demographics of individuals booked into the jail
The number of individuals booked by day varied from 3 to 38, with an average of 18.5 and median of 18. The maximum was significantly less than 2023’s maximum (47) but not far from the 2022 maximum (34). The overall distribution for all three years was about the same. The chart below shows the distribution of bookings by day.
In 2024, 5,035 different individuals were booked in Alachua County, 1.3% more than the 4,968 individuals in 2023. (Individuals are counted multiple times in the 6,759 bookings; we identify them by identical names and dates of birth.) Of the 5,035 individuals, nearly a quarter (1,206) were booked more than once, 367 (7.3%) were booked three or more times, and 1,211 (24.1%) were also booked the previous year. 2023 had four individuals booked 10 or more times, but the most for 2024 was seven times (two different people). In 2024, there were also eight people booked six times. Almost a third of individuals booked in 2024 had three or more charges filed against them (1,578 or 31.3%; it was 1,599 or 32.2% in 2023).
The daily booking logs are created by Alachua County Jail staff in an Excel spreadsheet that has dropdown menus for various fields. (We usually receive it as a PDF document.) The choices for race include Asian, Black, Hispanic, Indian, and White. However, all but 64 of the 6,759 entries listed either Black or White, even when the name and/or picture of the accused clearly suggested otherwise. As entered, the logs show that 57.7% of those arrested were black and 41.3% were white (compared to 58.5% and 40.7% in 2023).
The sex field should have fewer errors since there are only two options: male and female. If the entry doesn’t match the picture, we correct it. (Female inmates are given blue uniforms, and males have white/green striped uniforms.) Of the 6,759 bookings, 75.1% were male and 24.9% were female, compared to 75.0% and 25.0%, respectively, in 2023.
Over half the people booked (52.5%) were under 35 years old. The chart below shows the distribution by age, which is about the same as 2023 (and 2022 and 2021).
Types of arrests
The table below shows how each booking was classified by type. The vast majority of all bookings (93.1%) were either a mittimus (“on view”) or warrant. A mittimus booking typically means that a law enforcement officer makes an arrest during or shortly after the crime is committed and files an arrest report that documents the incident. (Most of the crime articles at Alachua Chronicle are written from mittimus reports, although some are written from sworn complaints.) A warrant is an arrest made by order of a judge, either for administrative violations (like failure to appear for a hearing or violation of pre-trial release conditions) or after sufficient evidence of a crime has been presented by law enforcement officers, usually by filing a sworn complaint after the crime was committed because the suspect was not apprehended at the time of the incident.
If there are multiple bookings for a single individual on the same day, they are consolidated into the same entry. If there is a mittimus line with some other charge in another line (warrant, VOP, etc.), we default to mittimus. There were 299 mittimus bookings that also had a warrant, VOP, FTA, or out-of-county charge (294 in 2023).
Agencies
Almost all warrant arrests (97.8%) in the booking log were made by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ASO). The table and chart below show the breakdown of the mittimus bookings by law enforcement agency.
Information and caveats about the data and this analysis
2024 was the fourth full year that the Alachua Chronicle published daily booking logs. You can read about our editorial decision to publish the booking logs here. Last year’s booking summary is available here with an additional article comparing crime data for 2022 and 2023 here.
The booking logs are not necessarily an accurate picture of crime in Alachua County for several reasons. Not every crime committed in 2024 was resolved and resulted in an arrest. Some of the people booked in 2024 were charged for crimes from previous years. Also, some of the people booked were arrested for out-of-county or out-of-state warrants and may not have committed any local crimes. When comparing to figures from other years, there is no way to know if the differences are caused by a change in crime rates or changes in enforcement policies.
The summaries we provide are based on “dirty” data. We copy and paste directly from the logs as we receive them, with only minor corrections to keep the format consistent on a given day (not necessarily from day to day). We fix obvious typos or errors when we see them. Errors with names and dates of birth are fixed using court records when possible.
Coming tomorrow: 2024 crime data by category with a comparison to 2023’s data.
oh look, crime went down, contrary to every narrative in the media, including this site, shocker
As the article says, arrests went down (by a whopping 1.4%), which may or may not indicate that crime went down. Read all the way to the end.
oh I did read all the way to the end actually, and the obvious indicator of crime being down is not total arrests, arrests don’t actually mean anything, But if you look at the total charges filed that’s down somewhat significantly. That’s actually an indicator of real crimes. So again… what I said stands, and that’s why when certain websites just post nonstop mugshots with no follow up you don’t get an accurate sense of what is actually happening in the community. It’s just low effort “content”
Except you forget that they have to arrest someone to charge them. A lot of crime goes unreported or they never catch the culprit. But you already knew that and argue your points in bad faith like most people.
In addition the number of arrests is based on the number of police, the number of charges is based on the availability and deportment of the District Attorney, and so on. A much deeper analysis is required before one can identify the bottlenecks between crime committed and punishment given.
Don’t believe any these stats there’s a lot people that should got a ride to 39th Ave instead they got a ride to a hospital either in the back of a police car or with the police following the ambulance. Those fine citizens would’ve been arrested for something back in day but today their classified as person in crises who are underserved members of the GSSR in need of services.
No need to diss this site Dee Dee. The Cabrera’s do a great job of keeping us informed.
you’re not actually being informed if you’re being fed a constant false narrative, humanity is hopeless
DeeDee, maybe if some of the whiners here put their money where their mouth is (in lieu of a subscription like the Sun), the Cabreras could afford to hire help. They do a lot more than the far left, radical Sun does with many more people.
You know what I’ve noticed if our fine local sources of journalism like WCJB Gainesville Sun and Florida Alligator don’t cover any crime or what’s really happening in the GSSR maybe that’s your problem because you’ve never seen the reality of what’s really going on or maybe you’re part of the problem and just want to hide the truth of what’s happening in the utopian society of the GSSR “Where Culture Meets Nature” as opposed to “Zero Drug Tolerance”
“Where culture meets nature”…
Wtf does that mean? It’s a stupid slogan.
I don’t know but the dirty hippie commies in the GSSR love it that’s why its their slogan and on all the county line signs as opposed to what every other county has on their signs “Zero Drug Tolerance” it’s slightly better than what they really wanted on the signs “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”
Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
Despite compromising 20.2% of the population, they still managed to comprise 57.7% of the crimes.
I wonder why? No one will talk about this, nor provide an answer outloud. Surely the cops aren’t sitting on every corner just looking for the any of ‘them’ to take to jail for any reason. Seems like as with as little proactive time cops get these days running from call to call the majority of ‘them’ that are arrested come from reactive calls generated by calls for service and responding to scenes. Hmmmm..the mystery continues..
Only a mystery to those who are clueless.
wow it’s almost like being only a few handfuls of generations away from literal slavery and segregation still has devastating effects on a community! who would have thunk!
No if anything it shows that demographic fails to integrate and compete with society. I’d like to point out India, for example they were able to develop a space program and they were enslaved by the British not that long ago. This just amplify the fact that they failed and continue to fail, integrating into society.
Since you are pointing out India. Don’t forget after all this time ( British rule ended in 1947)India still has a caste (slavery)system today. Where money, religion and location still means segregation among the population. And don’t forget how India is ranked in the top countries for air pollution and linked to millions of deaths. (1.6 million in 2019- highest in the world, and two million in 2021) Plus there studies showing that India’s caste system was worse then the US southern segregation of blacks. Just wanted to point that out too.
They should be arresting people for panhandling & littering…
“Where culture meets nature”? I shouldn’t see any litter in our city.
Panhandlers leave their trash where they panhandle.
wow it’s almost like being only a few handfuls of generations away from literal slavery and segregation still has devastating effects on a community! who would have thunk!
Tiresome: Hush your mouth. That is the ONE statistic no one is allowed to say. Not the city commission or the gun violence committee. Everyone must pretend that statistic does not exist, then find a solution that ignores it. Here we are.
I’m sure every single one of them dindu nuttin
Fitty seven pa’scent cain’t be wrong, yo
These stats are great but what we really want is more like an awards ceremony “The Jailys” you can have categories like the Grammys for example
most times booked 2024
Best mugshot male
best mugshot female
angriest mugshot
happiest mugshot
who wear the jail stripes best male/female
but seriously I do want to know who got caught and released the most times in GSSR. you could make a collage of all their mugshots You can call them Gainesville Public Enemy #1 you can have rankings top 10 inmates caught and released
you get idea right?
Signal, you are so off base with your “awards” categories.
You cannot do it without having the categories
Best Face Tattoo
Best Neck Tattoo
Best Chest Tattoo
and Best Long Bare Neck just Begging for some Prison Tats.
The statistics don’t lie. If you don’t like them, that doesn’t change them. “They” DO commit more crimes and that is just a fact.
the beauty of diversity equity and inclusion: these people come into our communities and we all reap the benefits of their increased crime.
“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.”
Dear AC: I really value the deep dive into the data. Thank you for what was clearly a lot of hard work in compiling this. What I would really value is YOUR summary analysis of it. What story do you think the data tells? Or is the actual story that the police departments charged with keeping these records seem to work diligently to prevent anyone from analyzing the data? For instance, were you thwarted by how they steadfastly refuse to accurately identify the races in their booking numbers? Does their failure to note which arrests were related to out-of-state crimes or were related to crimes from previous years — does this smack of intentional attempts to prevent those reading the reports from evaluating their performance as law enforcement organizations, or determining if our communities are getting safer or more dangerous? I’d welcome some editorial analysis, if you’d be so kind as to provide some.
This analysis only concerns jail bookings and is unrelated to any data provided by law enforcement agencies (other than indirectly because ASO runs the jail); local agencies do not “steadfastly refuse to accurately identify the races in their booking numbers.” The information provided by the jail in the daily booking log does note which arrests are from crimes outside our county, and the article discusses Alachua Chronicle’s decision to not count those arrests in our analysis of local bookings.
We will have a second article within a few days that goes more into data from law enforcement agencies. Stay tuned.
Can you please tell us who won the most booked 2024 Jailys award the readers really want to know and top 10 most times booked.