Sheriff Rick Bradshaw wants a 4.3% increase for doing such a "smashing" job. This increase will go towards salaries and benefits. He is out there presenting his case and doing what it takes to convince the Palm Beach County Commissioners to give him what he wants...$531.3 million. Usually the sheriff gets what he wants because all of us are paranoid about the increase in crime in our county. And NOTHING gets better. Hell, crime is sneaking west of the tracks--someone recently drove by and shot into a house in the 2400 block of Lake Osborne Drive.
Even in Lake Worth the sheriff says that crime is down other than in two categories. We who live here are not experiencing any vote of confidence that crime is diminishing to any acceptable level. In fact, we are experiencing more of it. See crime stats It is the elephant in the room that no commissioner EVER talks about along with the sheriff's budget unless, of course, they give us some erroneous bit of information like they saved us $600,000. The truth of the matter is, the sheriff's budget has gone up every year unlike the rest of Lake Worthians who work for a living and pay their salary increases.
- The Lake Worth crime index is 68% higher than the Florida average and and the Florida crime index is 15% higher than the National average.
- The Lake Worth violent crime rate is 130% higher than the Florida average and and the Florida violent crime rate is 25% higher than the National average.
- The Lake Worth property crime rate is 59% higher than the Florida average and and the Florida property crime rate is 14% higher than the National average.
When we first contracted with the Sheriff, there were 134 now we have a total of 94 Lake Worth police officers. This results
in 2.7 police officers per 1,000 residents which is 31.8% less than the
Florida average and 5% less than the National average. The criminals are winning the 'game" in our city.
As a city, we are definitely poorer with little results to show for the $15,057,593 (projected to go up next year to $15,651,934) which is nearly 60% of our operating budget for SAFETY.
There is power in numbers and Rick Bradshaw has more power than any human being in Palm Beach County. The rest of us? We sit here and pretend that we are feigning off criminals by putting on night lights so that criminals might think someone is at home, contract with ADT, install security lights, look over our shoulder when we are walking to our car and make the necessary precautions to feel less exposed to danger. And then we call for the sheriff AFTER the crime has been committed. Do we feel safer? In the end, it is the voter who has the power to affect change.
6 comments:
Did Susan Stanton bring in PBSO because of her fruitless dealings with the LWPD Union?
The PBSO was already in place way before Stanton was hired. How come you don't know much, anonymous, other than to bitch all of the time and make up crap to boot. Go take that nap.
Fruitless dealings with the Sheriff? She is the only city manager who ever negotiated and said NO. You people who continue to give unconditional support to the sheriff because they are nice guys really need to get a clue. The criminals are not afraid of them.
wow great post Lynn , I could not have said it better, cesar figueroa
I'm not anti-PBSO. I was very impressed the first few years, crime dipped, I saw regular patrols, problem spots were being dealt with, etc.
But then, poof . . . I can go a month or two without seeing a patrol. There is a lack of police presence in the city which contributes to crime, and it has creeped back up. There should be a police presence downtown and once in a while I see a cop but not with regularity. There efforts to do proactive policing has similarly decreased.
Well, I was threatened with arrest for sitting on a (public)bench under a tree on South Lakeside at dusk.
I', a well-groomed woman just taking a break on my bike ride. I was writing some stuff on my laptop.
Are things so dangerous here that I can't ride my bike in one of our nicer neighborhoods at dusk, or did he think I was a criminal?
He was so nasty and threatening I didn't bother to ask.
And no, I didn't argue. I just asked if for a second to save my writing and shut the computer down. That's when he got extremely,uh, creepy.
Not the first time with these guys.
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