Unfortunately, many things coming out of city hall and filtered by this government are not totally transparent thanks to the administration in power. Negative truths are not something this city wants to advertise. So Cpt. Silva reported on four categories that had reductions. According to Silva, the biggest problems we face here are drugs, prostitution and robberies. Drugs is the root cause of the other two.
It is what he didn't say that is problematic and we know of incidents that have gone unreported by deputies called to a scene. If we know of some, how many are there? There is so much crime, that these deputies have to concentrate on the worst first.
The crime data reveals that the overall Lake Worth, FL crime rates are 95% higher than in comparison to the Florida mean and are 125% higher than the nation's mean. In regards to violent offenses, Lake Worth, FL has a rate that is 170% higher than the Florida average; compared to the United States, it is 246% higher. Looking at crimes involving property, Lake Worth, FL is 84% higher than its state's mean, and 109% higher than the country's average. Source: Area Vibes
In the proposed 2014/2015 budget page2, advalorem is projected to be $6,315,694. In order to support the Public Safety aspect of our budget, we have revenues from other sources, i.e., utility fees, licenses and permits, fines and forfeitures, etc. As Public Safety takes the biggest portion of the pie (nearly 70% of budget), and Ric Bradshaw is getting another tremendous raise this year, city hall does not want to upset the resident, you know the guy who pays the bills.
Even the Palm Beach Post fell into the trap with its less than honest headline this morning--PBSO: Crime down, but still work to do." This does a dis-service to the city.
Just remember to Make the Call Ya'll and report suspicious activity: 561-688-3400.
So the city decided to have the PBSO give its bi-annual crime report as it is getting a lot of calls on the amount of crime here. Now that they have done their duty, it's back to business as usual. More crime and no outrage and we pay more.
ReplyDeleteMayor Triolo has her head in the sand. Just focused on gettin that convention center built at the beach I guess.
ReplyDeletewhen the volume of vehicles exceeds the roadway's capacity, its called gridlock. everything moves along slowly or comes to a complete standstill
ReplyDeletei dont know what the appropriate word would be when the amount of crime exceeds the capability of the PBSO, but I think thats whats happening in LW.
Solution 1. Temporarily hire more LEO's until crime is under control and can be handled by the SO.....maybe there are some federal dollars available to help out a seaside community. No tourist when there is crime.
Solution 2. Focus on one crime at a time (im not saying turn your head to other crimes) but crack (excuse the pun) down HARD on one specific problem, trying to get a handle on it. Make an all out effort. Then move on to the next.
These guys might be spread too thin to be totally effective
We can cheer overall reduced crime stats. Which, frankly, I do believe. Crime is down, generally, everywhere. So crime in Lake Worth is also down. But its not down compared to the rest of the county or the rest of the state. Our crime rate is still quite high, indeed very high for our size and population.
ReplyDeleteI'm pro PBSO and I was impressed (at least initially) when they took over LWPD. Remember that most of the LWPD officers stayed right here in our city, so its not that the quality of the policing changed, rather what changed was numbers. I've come to believe (based on reading about PBSO take overs in other cities), that PBSO has a strategy of doing a forceful job the first few years. Residents are happy, they see results and they are happy to pay, even pay more, for PBSO. Then once PBSO is well established, they dial back the quantity of officers because in most instances crime goes down and they can maintain a lower level of force. The problem is that is not what has happened here, they dialed back their numbers, and crime returned to prior numbers (except for the Haitian gang wars that caused all the drive by shootings, although I have been seeing more gang graffiti lately). So, basically we have a very expensive police force who is now giving us the number of officers and patrols that we had under LWPD and it is simply not sufficient.
Add in our elected officials, all of them, who simply prefer to pretend that crime is not an issue and you have a problem. Our commission doesn't push PBSO and PBSO therefore doesn't make any improvements or changes.
It's time to think of other solutions. I'm not against the PBSO. They are trying their best. However, it's time to be realistic.What have other high crime areas around the country done? What works? Private security is one avenue that has done a great job in some cities. The status quo is no longer enough.
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