Lake Worth Police Department - Walking Down a Dangerous Memory Lane (Re-Post)

These are statistics, published in 2007, of crime rates in the city of Lake Worth during the previous year. This is three years before the PBSO arrived on duty. It's alarming to think about what we lived through and that there were some who thought it was a good idea to go back to our own police department. We would then be free to make more cuts regardless of the impact on crime on our resident and visitor population.

And in many ways, we are still recovering from the public perception that crime was out-of-control in Lake Worth. Public perception changes only over the long term. And I am not suggesting that things are perfect now, but they are a lot better than they used to be. This might be one of the reasons our property values plunged so deeply during the Great Recession and are only now starting to recover. It is reassuring to know that our property value increase was finally above the Palm Beach County average for both municipalities and the unincorporated area.

These are figures that are current through 2012. As I said, things are still not perfect and there are a few uncomfortable blips. If someone has a more current set of statistics, please share.