Probation violators divert deputies in Lauderdale Lakes

LAUDERDALE LAKES — Deputies aren’t patrolling city streets as much as they used to because they’re busy transporting probation violators to jail.

Ever since the state relocated some its Broward County probation offices to the Lauderdale Marketplace plaza at Oakland Park Boulevard and State Road 7, deputies have increasingly been pulled off patrol duties to escort probation violators to the Main Jail in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Police services have already been cut back in the city by 40 percent following its near bankruptcy in 2011. A single transport can take up to two hours to complete and sometimes requires two deputies — when the city normally only has five on patrol at any time.

City officials don’t think the city should be underwriting what amounts to a regional service and will be asking the state and the county if a more equitable system can be worked out.

Deputies handled 334 probation transports last year and have already conducted 224 in less than six months this year. BSO Capt. Andrew Dunbar thinks the number is only going to get larger.

“We’re probably going to double or quadruple the number of transports,” Dunbar said. “We have to make the best of it. I don’t want to take [services] away by having to transport three, four times a day.”

Dunbar said the sheriff’s office warned commissioners of the potential problems when the city approved extra space for the offices at the plaza in September 2013 without any requirements for the state to contribute to the transportation costs.

At roughly $55 an hour and $110 a transport, the city subsidized the probation transports by roughly $37,000 last year. More significantly, the time required equated to taking a deputy off city streets for about 17 weeks last year.

The probation office location also means thousands of less-than-stellar individuals coming into the city monthly with potential for increased criminal activity, Dunbar said.

City officials don’t see why the state can’t do more.

“I see a state trooper car parked out in front of the driver’s license agency [in the plaza],” Commissioner Edwina Coleman said. “Why can’t they have their state troopers also take the criminals for transport?”

Dunbar said state officials “as long as they can save money on the backs of the citizens of Lauderdale Lakes, they’re going to do it.”

Officials with the Florida Department of Corrections, which oversees probation and parole services, said the state doesn’t plan to move any more of its probation offices to the city. They said 5,865 clients are currently being served in the city.

Dunbar said if an emergency arises while deputies are doing transports, the department can call in support from other districts. The deputies are not replaced on their routine patrols or in handling nonemergency calls, he said.