Great news! Please share: City of Greenacres made prestigious “Safest Cities in Florida” list.

Atlantis, Delray Beach, South Palm Beach and West Palm (sans a beach) DID NOT make the list but three municipalities patrolled by PBSO did.

And stay tuned! The long-awaited update in The Palm Beach Post on the merge of PBSO with the Greenacres Police Dept. will be forthcoming very soon.

With former journalist Chris Persaud back with the team at the Post a lot of data, comparison, and of course the political angle will be explored in depth.

Also of note is reporter Emily Bloch. It was Bloch who penned the breaking news front page Special Report about the eradication of invasive Muscovy ducks from a Village of Palm Springs neighborhood so she is well-versed in the local area and her unique perspective will be one certainly worth noting.

Earlier this year was the ten-year anniversary of PBSO in the City of Lake Worth. Back in 2015 when Greenacres was considering a merge with PBSO the “tipping point” was the residents’ experience here in Lake Worth, many of whom went to Greenacres City Council meetings and spoke highly of PBSO since the merge with the former LWPD. 


And many of you will recall this news
from earlier this year. . .

“SAFEST CITIES IN
FLORIDA 2018”:

Congratulations!
Greenacres made this year’s list.

Learn more below about this recent high
honor for the City of Greenacres.

FYI: Greenacres is patrolled by PBSO.
But did you know. . .

There are thirty-nine (39) municipalities in Palm Beach County (PBC). Thirty (30) have their own police departments and nine municipalities* and unincorporated PBC (areas in white; see map below) are patrolled by PBSO.

On the merge of the Greenacres PD with PBSO in 2015–2016,


“[T]here is no debate about the result. Overall crime is down, and available law-enforcement resources are far better.”

—Quote. Editor at The Palm Beach Post, March 10th, 2018.

Eastern area of Central Palm Beach County (CPBC).

Note that a map of western CPBC is below. 

Click on image to enlarge: 

On this year’s Safest Cities in Florida (SCF) list are Greenacres and villages of Wellington and Royal Palm Beach, all are patrolled by PBSO. City of Lake Worth is also patrolled by PBSO, latest data shows crime is down significantly, but the City didn’t make the SCF 2018 list due to outdated methodology used by the committee (see below).

Seven cities, towns, and villages in PBC made
the list this year. Here is the list:

• #10. North Palm Beach
• #19. Wellington [patrolled by PBSO]
• #33. Jupiter
• #42. Royal Palm Beach [PBSO]
• #49. Palm Beach Gardens
• #50. Greenacres [PBSO]
• #53. Boca Raton

Note the locations of Wellington and Royal Palm Beach in this map. The City of Greenacres is to the east of these two villages on the edge of the Florida Everglades.

Near the Village of Wellington in zip code 33449 is where Barbie the little horse was killed by coyotes recently. Some TV reporters still confuse this area with ‘Lake Worth’ but is actually in unincorporated PBC or “suburban Lake Worth”.

 
The following cities did not make this year’s list and that’s possibly explained by the methodology (see below) used by the National Council.

• Atlantis
• Delray Beach
• Hypoluxo
• Manalapan
• Palm Beach
• Palm Beach Shores
• South Palm Beach
• West Palm Beach

Methodology used by the National Council’s 100 “Safest Cities” list:

To identify the safest cities in Florida, we reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics along with our own population data and internal research. We eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and removed cities with populations under 10,000.

The remaining cities were ranked based on the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery) and property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) per 1,000 people. These variables were then weighted, with violent crimes accounting for 1.5 of the total (due to their severity) than property crimes.


*Besides Greenacres, Wellington, and Royal Palm Beach the other six cities, towns, and villages patrolled by PBSO are: Belle Glade, Lake Park, Lake Worth, Mangonia Park, Pahokee, South Bay and the unincorporated Loxahatchee areas.