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.  The Police Department also issues Open Burn Permits.  Please click here to access forms (Open Burn Permit and Hold Harmless Agreement) needed for open burns.

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.