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In all ways, Sheriff's Office trumps police for Belleair

By A TIMES EDITORIALS
Published September 24, 2006

Belleair residents have until Thursday to fill out and return a city survey asking whether they want to keep the Belleair Police Department or hire the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

The Town Commission isn't bound by the results of the survey, which is not a legal referendum but only a straw poll. However, because a majority of the commission refused to decide without polling residents first, one can assume that the members plan to take the results into account.

Early survey returns show that the town is split on the question, as is the Town Commission. How can that be? From a public safety perspective, from an officer safety perspective, from a budget perspective, the only choice that makes sense is the Sheriff's Office.

For slightly more than half of the amount that the town spends now for policing, it would have immediate and seamless access to all of the resources of the Sheriff's Office, including detectives, canine units, a SWAT team, investigative teams that specialize in different types of crimes, up-to-date equipment for officers, and sophisticated technological tools to better protect the community and solve crimes.

Contrast that with the Belleair Police Department, which has eight patrol officers who must cover three shifts, no detectives and had to borrow supervising officers from the Sheriff's Office because all of the department's supervisors left earlier this year. The patrol officers are dedicated and hardworking, but they have had to make do with substandard equipment and insufficient training and backup.

Some residents of Belleair have argued that their town doesn't need all of the bells and whistles of the Sheriff's Office. Belleair is a small residential community with little crime, they said.

First, why not take those services if you can have them for less than it costs now to operate the city department?

Second, do those residents think that criminals active in surrounding communities reach the Belleair border and turn around?

Furthermore, as the Clearwater and Largo police departments, which provide law enforcement in areas adjacent to Belleair, employ increasingly sophisticated techniques to snare criminals, Belleair, with its undermanned force, might be seen as an easier target.

Some supporters of the police argue that the many resources of the Sheriff's Office already are available to the town - all they have to do is call. That's right - they have to call. And they have to get in line, as the Sheriff's Office fulfills its obligations to the unincorporated county and the 10 cities with which it contracts, then helps out other departments.

Some residents say they like the personal service they get from Belleair police officers, who let them know if their garage door is up at night, help them catch wayward pets and check their homes while they are on vacation. They assume that the Sheriff's Office will ignore their needs.

Consider just one of those "personal" services: vacation checks. Belleair residents call the Police Department and ask for a vacation check. A note is written out and handed to the officers on duty.

The Sheriff's Office also provides vacation checks. Residents call the communications center and ask for a vacation check. A computerized form containing details about the property - will lights be left on or off, will anyone be visiting the property? - is completed and pops up on deputies' in-car computers as they start their shifts. When deputies check the property, they type into the computer what they find. When the homeowners return, they can get a printout that gives the times of the checks and what the deputy observed.

From a public safety perspective, the Sheriff's Office is just better.

Officer safety may not be an issue to residents, but it ought to deeply concern town officials. On each shift, Belleair's entire force amounts to two officers driving separate cruisers. If one officer must transport a suspect to the Pinellas County Jail, the other one is alone. That's dangerously vulnerable. Even officers now working for Belleair have asked the city to hire the sheriff.

Residents filling out their surveys hopefully realize that there is no question the sheriff offers the best service, and a lower price to boot. However, no matter how the survey turns out, town commissioners are duty bound to protect public safety. In Belleair, the public would be best protected by the Sheriff's Office.

[Last modified September 24, 2006, 09:08:43]