Friday, April 27, 2012

Operation Lookout. Now is the time for professional police action in combating Village crime. Mayor and Council need to step aside and let the Policing Unit do its job without political interference. This is not photo op time. Our property, personal safety and peace of mind are at stake.

A $50K home burglary occurred in Palmetto Bay on April 14th, 2012.  Is this really news?  It is an unfortunate fact of life is that these burglaries occur.  I have reported on such events before, both while in office and obviously through this blog.  But readers should be well aware that the MDPD/Village Policing Unit has been doing an outstanding job in clearing approximately 25% of these crimes.  Compare this to an overall average of 10 to 12%.  Palmetto Bay residents should be proud.  This is little consolation to those who have had their peace of mind violated by these criminals.

The Policing Unit is being proactive in bringing forward Operation Lookout, created by the Village Police.  This is a campaign to make people more aware of suspicious events and provides proper conduct and contact points to encourage reporting suspicious activities.  The Policing Unit has created materials, specifically door hangers, for distribution.  These materials have been ready for over a month.  This was discussed at the February Committee of the Whole meeting. 

You may have heard something about Operation Lookout, but you have not seen it in action.  Why?  Because apparently this current Mayor and the vice mayor think their judgment should supersede the professional judgment of professional police and have weighed in on the operation of the deployment of this program – which has caused a delay.  The council complained about the door hangers then the council directed the manager to find the money to mail these items.  This delay may have cost at least one Palmetto Bay community $50,000 in lost irreplaceable personal items   See  Online CBS Miami, Channel 4: Palmetto Bay Burglar Wanted For Stealing $50K In Jewelry, April 26, 2012 (Click the headline to view)

Besides the delay and forgetting the fact that there will be no personal interaction as police bring these door hangers to your door, additional costs will now have to be expended to process the materials, stuff envelopes and then mailing costs for the saturation mailing.    All this delay causing additional time delay for more suspicious acts to occur that may be crime in progress.  People should not have to wait until mail delivery.  Police could have received these materials directly.   I wonder how the Mayor and Council will respond to any complaints of junk mail or more costs.

Mayor Shelley Stanczyk, Vice Mayor Brian Pariser and the Council need to step aside and let the Policing Unit do its job as their professional expertise sees fit.  This is a time for professional decisions, and professional action, not time for political or emotional interference.  The Mayor and council cannot treat this as a photo op.  Our property, personal safety and peace of mind are at stake.

10 comments:

  1. Why can't Shelley Stanczyk let people do their job? She is mayor, not the police commissioner. Maybe she wants a blue light for her car dashboard and a police radio. Just what is she doing anyway?

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  2. The mayor needs to stop micromanaging the village.

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  3. Is this blog just for anti-shelly?

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    1. Certainly not. Please feel free to read all the posts, many are not even relating to Palmetto Bay. I have never hesitated to state my opinion. Feel free to advise me of any topics you would like addressed. Shelley Stanczyk does need to stay out of dictating operational matters of the police.

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  4. At $50,000 per day work, no wonder the criminal can drive a BMW! The residents need to know...and the elected officials need to step back and let the professionals get the word out. Shame on you elected officials...and shame on us for voting for them!

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  5. Maybe Mayor Shelley Stanczyk, Vice Mayor Brian Pariser objected to the police materials because her names and photos were not prominently featured on the front of the materials. Elected officials do like to see their names in bold print on anything that is distributed. Information be damned. It is all about name recognition and taking credit for anything positive that is done by others.

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    1. Maybe the council can prepare a wrap around page that would provide their official photos and names and then distribute without further delay. They simply need to do whatever it takes to get this information our. $50,000 is a lot to lose in a single burglary. Thank goodness no one was home to get injured. There next burglary could lead to a tragic result.

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  6. The Palmetto Bay website lists 22 crimes in the weekly crime report for the week of April 16 to 22. 21 out of 22 entries are thefts including home and car burglaries. Apparently our elected officials have no sense of urgency to get the crime avodance information out to the residents: http://www.palmettobay-fl.gov/sites/all/files/pdf/Village%20Departments/Police/cr-ending042212.pdf Will it take a death or serious injury to get them to move? Apparently not as wasn't a village resident recently killed when his motorcycle was hit by a car driven by suspicious people driving through a Palmetto Bay neighborhood.

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  7. Our Mayor Shelley Stanzyk, Vice Mayor Brian Pariser and our virtual mayor who calls all the shots behind the scenes, Joanne Lindsy, are the jack of all trades and master of none - excuse me, that's none except their personal agendas - Joanne - to destroy Palmer Trinity School, Shelly to micromanage everyone's life so she feels like the BMOC and Brian to ride on the coat tails of Joanne & Shelly to make sure he gets re-elected. All 3 of them need to go. Leave the police commander and the village manager alone so they can do their jobs.

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  8. AnonymousMay 13, 2012

    I read the weekly crime report. More burglaries are occurring each week. When will the Mayor go ahead and add her picture to the materials so the police can distribute this information to the public?
    MJ

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