08-03-2008, 04:09 PM
Strapped cities torn on hiring sheriff
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By CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 02, 2008
It is the multimillion-dollar question that cities throughout Florida are asking more and more: blue or green?
Stay with blue - the city's police department - and struggle to keep up with officers' salaries, contributions to their pension fund and steep liability insurance premiums? Or go green, and contract with the sheriff's office for police services?
More crime coverage
"The truth is our residents want more police officers in the city, and we just can't give it to them," Lake Worth Mayor Jeff Clemens said. Lake Worth will decide this week whether to join seven cities in the county that have dismantled their police departments and hired the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office for law enforcement.
There are benefits besides saving money, supporters say. Gone are the days of negotiating new contracts with the police union. The sheriff's office has helicopters, drug- and bomb-sniffing dogs, boats, a crime lab, a jail and an evidence custodian. Cities also dump the rising cost of liability insurance and contributions to the city's police pension fund - large long-term savings.
"Aside from crime fighting, the under-funding of our pension fund is the number one problem for the future," Clemens said. The police pension fund is short by more than $12 million. "That's a burden that the merger would help us get out from under."
Delray Beach, also facing a budget crunch, is exploring a merger, although Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said he has not heard from Delray officials.
Opponents - mostly politicians - fear losing control of law enforcement in their communities. They also worry that an outside agency will threaten their city's hometown feel.
"It would really hurt to see us turn our police department to the county," former Highland Beach Mayor Harold Hagelmann said at a town meeting Tuesday. "We are special. We pay to be special."
Bradshaw said that logic is based on "bad information." The deputies assigned to patrol city streets often did the same job when they worked as city police officers. "They just have a different color uniform and a different color car," he said.
When Royal Palm Beach turned over police duties to the sheriff's office last year, Bradshaw "kept every single person."
"The hardest thing to get past is the politicians," Bradshaw said. "They think they're giving up control and they want to control everything. It's almost a no-brainer. ... We don't want the cities to lose their identity."
Wellington has never had its own police department. From the village's founding in 1996, it has relied on the sheriff's office to handle police duties. There have been no regrets, said Village Manager Paul Schofield and Director of Operations John Bonde.
The sheriff has a substation in Wellington. For consistency's sake, the 59 deputies, detectives, officers and support staff assigned to work in the village work only in the village.
The markings on the cars are green - the color of the sheriff's cruisers - but "Wellington Public Safety" is splashed across the sides of the vehicles.
Village officials consider sheriff's Capt. Gregory Richter their police chief.
Because the sheriff has a countywide communication system, "their intelligence and data sharing is remarkable," Schofield said. Last year, the average clearance rate for crimes in Palm Beach County was 19.1 percent. In Wellington, one-third of all crimes reported were cleared, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
As for the police officers who must reapply for their jobs, few complain. Benefits at the sheriff's office are often better than those offered by cash-strapped cities. Officers hired by the sheriff get to pick which retirement system to participate in.
Those with many years of service with a city often opt to keep the city plan.
However, many officers choose to participate in the lucrative, more financially stable Florida Retirement System available with the department.
Not all cities have welcomed the sheriff. A bitter debate - mostly along racial lines - preceded the Belle Glade City Commission's split decision to disband its disgraced police department in 2006. A stinging 30-page grand jury report criticized the department's handling of a 2005 nightclub shooting. The sheriff hired only about half of the city's police officers.
Though the sheriff has received mixed reviews in Belle Glade, statistics show that crime is down. The crime rate dropped 6 percent between 2005 - the last full year that the city's police department fought crime - and 2007.
The percentage of crimes cleared rose from 10.6 percent in 2005 to 16.5 percent in 2007.
"You're fighting 25 years of what was there," Bradshaw said of winning the confidence of Belle Glade residents.
The phenomenon of the sheriff's office taking over local police departments began shortly after Bradshaw was elected sheriff in 2004. But tighter city budgets, more expensive technology and rising insurance premiums and salaries explain some of the mergers.
Bradshaw, the former West Palm Beach police chief, gives himself credit, too.
"Because I came from ranks of police chiefs, I think they felt more comfortable," Bradshaw said.
"Once you do it and it becomes successful, others follow."
Bradshaw gets no additional money from the county or state to take over a police department. The cities pay the entire bill, he said.
As for the additional work, "I've got 4,000 employees now, so whether it's 4,300 or 4,400 doesn't really matter. It's like eating an elephant. You bite it off in little chunks."
Listen to this article or download audio file.Click-2-Listen
By CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 02, 2008
It is the multimillion-dollar question that cities throughout Florida are asking more and more: blue or green?
Stay with blue - the city's police department - and struggle to keep up with officers' salaries, contributions to their pension fund and steep liability insurance premiums? Or go green, and contract with the sheriff's office for police services?
More crime coverage
"The truth is our residents want more police officers in the city, and we just can't give it to them," Lake Worth Mayor Jeff Clemens said. Lake Worth will decide this week whether to join seven cities in the county that have dismantled their police departments and hired the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office for law enforcement.
There are benefits besides saving money, supporters say. Gone are the days of negotiating new contracts with the police union. The sheriff's office has helicopters, drug- and bomb-sniffing dogs, boats, a crime lab, a jail and an evidence custodian. Cities also dump the rising cost of liability insurance and contributions to the city's police pension fund - large long-term savings.
"Aside from crime fighting, the under-funding of our pension fund is the number one problem for the future," Clemens said. The police pension fund is short by more than $12 million. "That's a burden that the merger would help us get out from under."
Delray Beach, also facing a budget crunch, is exploring a merger, although Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said he has not heard from Delray officials.
Opponents - mostly politicians - fear losing control of law enforcement in their communities. They also worry that an outside agency will threaten their city's hometown feel.
"It would really hurt to see us turn our police department to the county," former Highland Beach Mayor Harold Hagelmann said at a town meeting Tuesday. "We are special. We pay to be special."
Bradshaw said that logic is based on "bad information." The deputies assigned to patrol city streets often did the same job when they worked as city police officers. "They just have a different color uniform and a different color car," he said.
When Royal Palm Beach turned over police duties to the sheriff's office last year, Bradshaw "kept every single person."
"The hardest thing to get past is the politicians," Bradshaw said. "They think they're giving up control and they want to control everything. It's almost a no-brainer. ... We don't want the cities to lose their identity."
Wellington has never had its own police department. From the village's founding in 1996, it has relied on the sheriff's office to handle police duties. There have been no regrets, said Village Manager Paul Schofield and Director of Operations John Bonde.
The sheriff has a substation in Wellington. For consistency's sake, the 59 deputies, detectives, officers and support staff assigned to work in the village work only in the village.
The markings on the cars are green - the color of the sheriff's cruisers - but "Wellington Public Safety" is splashed across the sides of the vehicles.
Village officials consider sheriff's Capt. Gregory Richter their police chief.
Because the sheriff has a countywide communication system, "their intelligence and data sharing is remarkable," Schofield said. Last year, the average clearance rate for crimes in Palm Beach County was 19.1 percent. In Wellington, one-third of all crimes reported were cleared, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
As for the police officers who must reapply for their jobs, few complain. Benefits at the sheriff's office are often better than those offered by cash-strapped cities. Officers hired by the sheriff get to pick which retirement system to participate in.
Those with many years of service with a city often opt to keep the city plan.
However, many officers choose to participate in the lucrative, more financially stable Florida Retirement System available with the department.
Not all cities have welcomed the sheriff. A bitter debate - mostly along racial lines - preceded the Belle Glade City Commission's split decision to disband its disgraced police department in 2006. A stinging 30-page grand jury report criticized the department's handling of a 2005 nightclub shooting. The sheriff hired only about half of the city's police officers.
Though the sheriff has received mixed reviews in Belle Glade, statistics show that crime is down. The crime rate dropped 6 percent between 2005 - the last full year that the city's police department fought crime - and 2007.
The percentage of crimes cleared rose from 10.6 percent in 2005 to 16.5 percent in 2007.
"You're fighting 25 years of what was there," Bradshaw said of winning the confidence of Belle Glade residents.
The phenomenon of the sheriff's office taking over local police departments began shortly after Bradshaw was elected sheriff in 2004. But tighter city budgets, more expensive technology and rising insurance premiums and salaries explain some of the mergers.
Bradshaw, the former West Palm Beach police chief, gives himself credit, too.
"Because I came from ranks of police chiefs, I think they felt more comfortable," Bradshaw said.
"Once you do it and it becomes successful, others follow."
Bradshaw gets no additional money from the county or state to take over a police department. The cities pay the entire bill, he said.
As for the additional work, "I've got 4,000 employees now, so whether it's 4,300 or 4,400 doesn't really matter. It's like eating an elephant. You bite it off in little chunks."