Tuesday, June 19, 2018

The latest gimmick to reduce crime in Lake Worth

As previously mentioned, the city has approved the purchase of License Plate Readers in the amount of $332,012 that will be paid from the penny sales tax.. This item is on tonight's Consent Agenda.

Commissioner Omari Hardy said, “I think it will be a huge game changer... they noticed that criminals would steal cars from other cities and then enter Lake Worth to commit crimes. Then they leave Lake Worth with these stolen vehicles. So if we can catch them before they commit a crime and gets caught on the license plate readers, we can stop crime before it happens in the city."

Commissioner, do you really believe that we will instantly know when a stolen car enters our city?  Do you really believe that PBSO will have someone monitoring those cameras 24/7/365 and dispatch a deputy immediately to arrest the perp? Is that what you want the public to believe?

Justin Olive of the Common Ground Coffee Bar is right and was honest in his assessment--Crime has escalated in this city. Everyone knows it. The city just won't admit it and with this purchase it is acting and spending to sooth the fears of the public.

As we have so much crime in this city that is never discussed, Click here to see the video.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

How has this performed in other towns where it was installed? Right now the only time we see a PBSO officer is after we get robbed.

Lynn Anderson said...

Once again, the city puts an important item on the Consent Agenda--We don't know if these readers will give instant information to every deputy on duty in Lake Worth so that they actually can get the "bad" guy. We have no info as to results from other cities in justifying this expense. It should be pulled to at least inform the public.

Anonymous said...

That is why I moved out of Lake Worth after over 20 years of living in the city. There is too much crime, blight, and lawlessness, and on top of it all, completely ineffective leaders and police to address all of these problems. No regrets! Will they ever admit the crime problem or do anything about it or so many other things?

John Harvie said...

Do you have any earthly idea how this system works? Have you spent one minute researching it? Have you talked to anyone about it?

Do you know that that the readers alert law enforcement agencies automatically after reading a tag and running it through the system and getting a hit? That the alert is sent to a 24/7 LE dispatch who then issues an LPR alert to road officers?

So you're jumping on a commissioner who HAS done his homework and has had the system explained and maybe even demonstrated to him. Why do you do this? Do you always have to be so arrogant and confrontational even when you have no earthly idea what you're talking about?

Anonymous said...

To rid of crime, shut down sober house industry.

Anonymous said...

Residents in town complain about crime but this is the city taking a huge step to modernize and cut crime yet people are still being criti K? Hundreds of cities use this technology and yes the police are immediately notified if a plate is scanned that is currently associated with a crime or reported stolen. This is not new and is working throughout the country. Since LW often feels like it’s stuck in prehistoric times this is very good news and I am happy about it. Hopefully the message will finally start getting around that LW is not resting on it’s laurels and slum lords, drug addicts, low lifes, and criminals are not welcome to seek refuge here!

Lynn Anderson said...

@4:29. I went home to hear the meeting but the video was down. The item was pulled by Commissioner Hardy and hopefully all my concerns were addressed. As it was on Consent Agenda, we were not going to get an explanation. Now, because your video was down, once again, I will have to take the time to listen to it today to find out how instant it is and how instant the info appears in deputies instruments. I can't research everything you people put on Consent Agenda or read 400 pages of back-up. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Commissioner Omar, if anyone takes for gospel everything the city and the Sheriff lays on us, we would be totally broke by now. They sure want to spend all our sales tax money.

Anonymous said...

the article said that one person will be monitoring these readers. So it's apparent that the PBSO will not get instant readings.

Skip said...

Anonymous at 12:16....I haven't checked lately but I think PBSO is open all day and night. Can you believe they're even open on Christmas?!? And do you think if they 10 people monitoring the readers the readings would be more or less instant? Maybe they need to rethink that.