Friday, February 5, 2016

Is Lake Worth getting any bang for the buck when it comes to making our community safe?

Comment Up

We have had two murders in Lake Worth so far in 2016. The other night, there was a brutal murder at the 1200 block of 12 Court North. Those who spoke to CBS 12 off camera said "this brazen crime shows that the bad guys aren't afraid of PBSO, and that has the community on edge."

See channel 12 video

Tuesday night a woman and her daughter spoke about this incident during public speaking on non-agendaed items. And the dead man, someone they had known for years, literally died on their doorstep. Bullets were flying all over the place and they still found casings after the PBSO left the premises. Mrs. Nancy Bradford, who has been here for 38 years, said that she was still traumatized and wanted support for our police and better training for them. Directing her comments to the city commission, "What can you do for our community?" she asked. Her daughter spoke and said that 8 years ago her father was mugged at gunpoint at his doorstep and pleaded with McVoy and mayor Triolo to better train our police. The mayor said, "thank you." Mrs. Bradford's two minutes were up.

People don't understand.  The Palm Beach County Sheriff's department is well trained. However, when you live in a city with so much crime, you have to wonder what the hell happened.  This is not Detroit. No, we can't blame it on the commission but something caused it.

Do we just have too much crime or is the problem not enough boots on the ground? Is the PBSO totally reactive rather than pro-active? Cpt. Baer said that we had 84 deputies but do they concentrate solely on Lake Worth or are they sent out to neighboring communities? Do they patrol in areas of high crime? If not, why not? What about our Cultural Plaza where supposedly all these dregs are doing drugs? Why aren't they being arrested? Why are so many of them in Lake Worth? We spend over half our operating budget for policing. Are we getting any bang for the buck?

Cpt. Todd Baer

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

pencil pushers take reports

there is no additional grants or funding
for actually doing the job they were
hired to do

solving crimes takes real work and
being there is how it's done - they
have no obvious interest in being there
to actually see the crimes committed and
why would they is the elected pretend all
is well and crime is down?

Anonymous said...

It's entirely out of hand and I'm beginning to wonder if we are becoming ground zero for new drug wars. And rather than any progress it seems this problem just multiplies. It's scary to watch our city going down the tubes as far as crime and no real plan to address this. Catering to developers is no help at all.

Anonymous said...

Catering to the drug addicts and homeless is NO help at all, when it comes to central downtown places.
And just how does 'catering to developers' relate to the 'drug wars'? Anon @ 6:15?

Anonymous said...

This commission should be concentrating on the basics of getting rid and reducing crime, not Hudson Holdings, not the POC. That's what it means anony @ 11:31. You have already criminalized the homeless. Aren't you happy yet? Get a life, one to be proud of.

Anonymous said...

The man was shot in a drug deal gone bad. Instead of speculations why not wait for the cop investigation to render your opinions.

Lynn Anderson said...

@9:17--
No where in the CBS video did it say that it was a "drug deal gone bad."
"Instead of speculation, why not wait for the cop investigation" before you state something like this?

I think our residents are just fed up with the amount of crime--aren't you?

Crime is crime whether it is committed by drug dealers or just some dirt bag.

Anonymous said...

I expect our leadership to manage the most important and most expensive parts of our City services. And drum roll, that is law enforcement. Why do they do nothing except pay out tons of money to PBSO. They are utterly afraid to ask PBSO any questions, to ask PBSO to direct resources to hot spots, to ask PBSO to do anything. It is clear that majority is afraid of PBSO leadership and are afraid to say one word about them unless it is going on and on about how awesome they are.

It is clear that City commission and manager are a failure in that they cannot manage law enforcement issues in this city, which is likely the most important and most expensive task that falls to them.