Readying for change

Pembroke Park, incorporated in the 1950s and mostly known for its sea of mobile home communities, has about 6,100 full-time residents, and in the winter that jumps to 14,000 to 15,000, many of them French Canadian snowbirds.

The plan to dump the Sheriff ’s Office in favor of starting up its own agency was pitched as a way to get more boots on the ground. And town officials accused deputies of having other priorities unless there was an emergency, and not doing as much routine patrol as they would have liked.

Cost was another concern: The Sheriff ’s Office’s $3.3 million annual price tag was becoming onerous, town officials said.

The town had set a deadline to start the police force by August, but that didn’t happen. Getting in the way were plans for computer software getting linked to the regional system, and now that process is at least a year away.

Pembroke Park Police Chief David Howard said by email that the department still needs to purchase software that allows in-car computers to communicate with the regional dispatch center and additional software that the officers will use to write reports on.

“It’s going to take time to program the system,” Jacobs said. The creation is like any other building of a business, but with this one “there’s a lot of red tape.”

The new estimate for when the new police force would start serving the community: Sometime in the first quarter of 2023 “is the realistic goal of going live,” said City Manager Juan “J.C.” Jimenez.

Others numbers seem fluid.

Town officials first thought they could make a go of it by hiring 16 people — including Chief Howard — but they now expect to have an extra officer for each shift, which brings the total to 20, to provide the level of

service they want to see.

And that means the price tag just went up.

The original estimate to maintain the Pembroke Park Police Department was $2.7 million, but has now increased to $3 million “and may even go up,” Jimenez acknowledged. “I don’t have a final number. It’s been moving around.”

“[It’s] 100% this department will happen. We’re delayed by circumstances beyond our control. ... But it’s the best thing for this community.”

— Pembroke Park Mayor Geoffrey Jacobs