ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando Police Chief John Mina is defending his crime record as the city sees a recent spike in murders.

There have been 36 homicides within the jurisdiction of Orlando Police Department so far this year. According to Florida Department of Law Enforcement, there were 25 murders in 2017, and 37 in 2016, not including 49 who were killed in June 2016 at Pulse nightclub.

“Crime in Orlando overall is down, we have a spike in homicides this year, but if you look over the last 8 to 12 years compared to the past 4 years, our homicide rate is actually down,” Chief John Mina said.

Spectrum News 13 spoke with Chief Mina Wednesday morning while he attended the Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s annual Crime Summit.

Mina is among three candidates running to become Orange County Sheriff. One of the challengers, retired Florida Highway Patrol commander Joe Lopez, disputes Mina’s viewpoint on crime numbers, saying that crime is a growing concern.

“Murder rates are up this year,” Lopez said. “Nobody else cares about any other crime rate because if people can’t leave their houses because they don’t feel safe, nothing else matters -- crime rate is up.”

Lopez and Mina are both running without any party affiliation. Darryl Sheppard is also running for Sheriff as a Democrat, the only partisan candidate on the ballot.

As front runner candidates, Lopez and Mina took part in a debate Wednesday in Winter Garden, hosted by Spectrum News 13’s anchor Allison Walker Torres.

Lopez took issue again with the growing number of murders.

“Crime is not down in the City of Orlando,” Lopez said. “It keeps going up and we’re not done yet. We outdid the City of Miami, and I don’t’ see how crime is down.”

Mina, who has been Orlando’s police chief for the past four and a half years, defended his record.

“Crime reduced by 6 percent, juvenile arrests are down by 16 percent, use of force by officers is down by 30 percent, officer-involved shootings have decreased because of training, policies, and procedures I’ve put in place,” Mina said.

FDLE’s 2017 Uniform Crime Report shows crime overall went up 4.6 percent from the year 2016 to 2017.

Mina says crime overall has gone down approximately 6 percent during his tenure as Chief, when he was hired in 2014. His campaign also says preliminary numbers showing crime year-to-date from September 2016 to September 2017 is also down.