The misleading graphic on the front page of today's Palm Beach Post: The "Line of Fire" story and PBSO

The text "250 police shootings in Palm Beach County since 2000" is very misleading.

The text in the image above is very misleading, to say the least. This text appeared along with a graphic on the front page of today's (1/3) Sunday paper. What is missing from this text in the Post's graphic was "police shootings in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast since 2000". The Post's data isn't only about PBSO; the data also includes all the individual cities with police departments, federal agencies, and even the St. Lucie County Sheriff, for example. When you eliminate all the law enforcement agencies that are not PBSO and local Palm Beach County (PBC) police departments the total of police shootings in the Post report is 211.

Also, what the Post also doesn't make clear to their readers is Sheriff Bradshaw didn't take over the operation of PBSO until 2005. There have been 114 shootings by PBSO deputies since 2000 but 26 of them occurred from 2000 to 2004 when Ric Bradshaw wasn't the sheriff in PBC. That brings the total to 88 PBSO shootings from 2005 to 2014 when the data collection ends.

Here are some of the law enforcement agencies in the Post's "250 police shootings in Palm Beach County":

• Florida Highway Patrol Training Academy (4 shootings)
• Martin County Sheriff (6)
• Port St. Lucie Police Dept. (5)
• St. Lucie County Sheriff (12)

Now consider this: From 2005 to 2014 (10 years) there were 88 PBSO shootings by deputies and 48% of them happened in a 4 year span from 2007 to 2010. If you recall, that was the time of the terrible gang problem in PBC when Lake Worth disbanded its PD and went with PBSO. Just something to consider.

It was heartening to read the Post editorial today and hopefully that signals a pivot at the paper to focus on the hard issues instead of the constant drumbeat of anti-PBSO news. This anti-PBSO, anti-Sheriff Bradshaw bias has gone on long enough and isn't doing anything to make our neighborhoods any safer:

Sign at an anti-PBSO protest in Lake Worth in 2014. How quickly they forget those terrible years prior to PBSO taking over for the Lake Worth PD in 2009.