SARASOTA COUNTY — When Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight first took office in 2008, he looked to implement the Intelligence 2 Action program as a way to cut down crime and run a more efficient police force.

“Intelligent policing is a forward-looking philosophy and it’s not reactive at all,” Knight said in a presentation to Sarasota County commissioners on Wednesday. “It focuses on threats posed to a community and people who we know are problematic. It’s basically actual intelligence. We use a lot of analysts now — including civilians — to control and direct where our resources go so we’re not flooding areas with personnel and sending personnel to areas where we know potential threats could be.”