Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Palm Beach sheriff wants a fifth term
Retired police major runs as challenger, calls for reform
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, a homegrown law man of 50 years, says he has unfinished business in aiming to win his fifth term in office.
He now faces primary opponent Alex Freeman, a retired Riviera Beach police major with big ideas. But can Freeman dethrone the sitting sheriff, given all of Bradshaw’s political clout? Freeman tried to defeat him four years ago but Bradshaw won handily.
On Aug. 18, it will be Round Two when Palm Beach County voters head to the polls for the primary election. The winner of the sheriff ’s Democratic primary will face Lauro Diaz, a Republican challenger, in November.
The issues on the campaign trail have touched upon the civil unrest across the country, highlighting the issue of ensuring deputies are well-trained to avoid police brutality. Among the resources would be obtaining body cameras and boosting training to defuse encounters with the public.
The candidate who triumphs will take the reins of the largest law enforcement agency in Palm
Beach County, leading 4,000 employees and 4,300 volunteers.
A longtime sheriff
Bradshaw, 72, has touted his decades of law enforcement experience, 15 of the those years as sheriff. If he were to stay on for another four-year term, he will become longest-serving sheriff in Palm Beach County.
During his many years in office, the Palm Beach Sheriff ’s Office has been rocked by a string of controversial shootings and lawsuits. That led to money awarded to the victims of shootings and other violent encounters with deputies.
Three years ago, the family of an unarmed man killed by a deputy accepted a $2.5 million set
tlement. Seth Adams’ family struck the agreement in 2017, near the five-year anniversary of the killing at the Loxahatchee Groves nursery where Adams worked and lived. The Adams’ family attorneys called it the largest wrongful death payout ever by the Sheriff ’s Office.
In a separate case, a jury awarded Dontrell Stephens, who was shot and paralyzed, more than $23.1 million in his case against the agency and Deputy Adams Lin. The court lowered that to $22.4 million, but Stephens didn’t get that amount in the end. Most recently, Stephens was set to receive a $6 million settlement because of a state bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June.
Bradshaw also was scrutinized over how his agency allowed sex offender and wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein to participate 12 hours a day on a liberal work-release program. Epstein was to be serving a 13-month sentence after taking a plea deal from federal prosecutors. After the criticism last year, Bradshaw halted the program for further review.
But Bradshaw has credited himself for improving the Sheriff ’s Office, cleaning up a mess he says he inherited in 2004. The Sheriff’s Office is now nationally recognized, operating with an annual budget of $620 million and serving the unincorporated areas as well as seven cities and towns.
One of the reasons Bradshaw wants another term is to see initiatives through, such as beefing up the agency’s mental health teams, he recently told the South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board. Bradshaw has created seven teams that pair social workers with deputies. He’d like to double the teams’ size to handle crisis situations and de-escalate them without force. He said there are roughly 12 crisis calls a day.
He said the jail operates as the county’s largest mental health provider and it shouldn’t be that way. As sheriff, Bradshaw helps oversee homeland security for South Florida — from Martin County to the Keys. With the position, he has secured additional funding for training. His office provides local security when President Trump visits Mar-a-Lago. Bradshaw has been able to secure reimbursement for those expenses.
Seeking body cameras
A renewed demand for body cameras also has resurfaced across the country after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis officers involved in his arrest. It has highlighted how the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office still hasn’t adopted the use of such devices when many other agencies across the region already did years ago. Both Bradshaw and Freeman say they support the use of body cameras.
For years Bradshaw has been talking about them but they haven’t materialized.
Years ago, when some members of the Palm Beach County Commission said it would be a good idea if the sheriff embraced the cameras, Bradshaw said fine, but only if he got $19 million up front. Today he maintains he still needs that amount.
Heading into the election, Bradshaw is well-backed with a campaign war chest of $693,466, or more than 21 times the money, $32,641, raised by Freeman. Diaz has raised $49,162.
Facing a challenger
To Bradshaw’s opponent in the primary, it is time for a change.
Freeman has said while law and order must be maintained, aggressive policing for minor infractions and misdemeanors does not reduce serious crime, but instead inadvertently results in escalations of major crimes. “Be part of history,” Freeman wrote on his campaign’s web page, which lists many police reform initiatives such as implementing the body cameras, prohibiting chokeholds and demilitarizing law enforcement.
Freeman retired as a major — the third in charge — from the neighboring Riviera Beach Police Department in 2015. He has 22 years of experience in law enforcement. Freeman did not respond to requests for an interview. He also didn’t attend the South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board meeting, where he would have been interviewed.
Four years ago when Bradshaw went up against Freeman, as well as other challengers, Bradshaw had this to say about them: “The bottom line is they got no experience doing anything. They’ve never ever, ever run a police organization. I’ve got more time running police organizations than they have in law enforcement. They couldn’t run a lemonade stand on the side of the road.”