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The Police
Department is the part of the city government that is responsible for the protection of life and
property within the boundaries of the Town.
The twenty-six miles
of paved roadways are patrolled twenty-four hours a day. A communications center is
located at the Town Hall complex and is also a twenty-four hour operation. The Center is
well equipped with state of the art electronics including enhanced 911.
The Center provides
an alarm monitoring service for residents that want to have their alarms come directly to
the Center.
The Department
provides some custom services to Ocean Ridge residents. Some of these are: property
checks, pet registration and home security checks and planning.
As with almost all
small departments, ours depends on the County Sheriff to handle major crimes such as
homicide, rape or other crimes that would cause the expenditure of man hours dealing with
protracted investigations or that require the use of specialists or specialized training
such as lab techs, SWAT teams or helicopters.
The Department works
most traffic crashes but will defer to the Florida Highway Patrol when a traffic homicide
or fatality occurs.
The Town with its
limited entry and exit points, two bridges and one main highway (A1A), enjoys very low
incidents of criminal activity. Our citizens must constantly be reminded to close their
doors and use their alarm systems. The residents feel safe in our Town.
When a call for
police is made to the Communications Center, the usual time that it takes for an
officer to arrive on the scene is 2 3 minutes.
The Department has
one Lieutenant, four Sergeants, eight full time and two part time officers. They are augmented by five police
reserves/fire fighters.
The Department
enforces Town codes other than those related to building and land use.
The Town uses a
hearing officer to process code violations. The cases are prepared by the Police
Department and prosecuted by the Town Attorney. Fines and liens can be assessed in order
to obtain compliance.
The Public Works
operation is under the Town Manager. From time to time Police officers
will work on Public Works projects. The two Public Works maintenance men are volunteer
firemen and one of them is a certified communications dispatcher.
Fire
and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is provided through contract with the City of Boynton Beach. The
Town averages eighty EMS calls per year.
The
Department in
conjunction with Palm Beach County Emergency Management Division conducts evacuation from
the Islands in case of a major storm.
The average length
of experience in law enforcement/ fire fighting is nineteen years.
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