The very popular Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly has put Palm Coast and county officials in a difficult position by requesting 25 additional deputies for 2022. It’s the largest ask in either county or city history by far. Crime is at a historic low, by far. It’s doubtful it’s been this low since the days of cows and turpentine. But elected officials in both governments who can only dream of Staly’s stature are too busy pandering to him instead of minding their budgets.
As we just witnessed in the last election, being “pro-police” has become one of those requisite flags candidates wrap around themselves, like calling themselves “pro-children” or “pro-God,” the implication being that anyone who doesn’t follow the goose-step is anti-police, or a heathen. The pro-police rhetoric is intended to shut down debate and get you in line, preventing constructive discussions about a public service like any other.
It’s also an opportunistic counter-reaction to the bogus narrative of “defunding” police. There is no such thing as defunding the police. There never was anything close to it in Florida, certainly not to the extent that affordable housing, public education and mental health are being plundered in this state.The misnomer about defunding police briefly gained steam in some other states (and in cynical opportunism in this one) only because even those who want to shift some dollars from policing to social services–a perfectly valid proposition–let their own clumsy and inaccurate branding get redefined by a right-wing machinery only too happy to score points on making the lefties look like irresponsible pansies putting cities in danger.
But if there is no such thing as defunding the police, there is such a thing as overfunding police. That’s what the request for 25 deputies would do. The sheriff is basing the request on a University of North Florida study. The study is flawed and it’s not independent. The sheriff commissioned it.
The 2020 study is premised on policing ratios asserted as monolithic truths, just because policing ratios have been asserted in the past. The ratios in the UNF study overstate population trends, understates policing in the county as a whole and ignores the advances of policing technology the sheriff himself has made so much of, and that keep making policing so much more efficient: license-plate readers, the real-time crime center, traffic cameras all over Palm Coast, technology-driven weekly strategy meetings, GPS monitoring of suspects, home-based and business-based surveillance and Ring cameras, all of which are playing an outsized role in crime-fighting, to say nothing of computer-assisted dispatching and so on–all elements barely in the field when those ratios were established as presumed standards. Yet the study still sticks to them. It’s like grounding your methodology on pre-internet days and divorcing it from current reality. Look around. Flagler has the fourth-lowest crime rate among counties of 100,000 population or more.
Even if we assume the ratios are valid, they don’t stand up to local scrutiny. The study based its ratio on 2018 staffing of 170 deputies, a ratio “below the staffing levels of other agencies in the South with a similar population size.” That ratio would be 1.9 officers per 1,000 population. Fine. But what kind of population? Old? Young? In between? With what kind of crime index? The study ignores all those differences, even though they’re readily available and make a huge difference in policing. By lumping together all “southern” jurisdictions, the study is comparing apples to oranges–Jacksonville to Flagler.
It doesn’t work that way.
Only 13 percent of Jacksonville’s population is 65 and over. In Flagler, it’s more than double that: 31.2 percent, up from 24 percent 10 years ago. But we know that older people commit far fewer crimes. The most crime-prone demographic is people 18 to 24–a barely-growing cohort in Flagler County among all adult groups. We already have more people 80 years and older (7,867 in 2020) than we do 18-to-24 (7,144). The older group is projected to grow by 126 percent over the next 30 years. The younger group? 39 percent, from an already small base (to a total of 10,000 by 2045).
Those numbers explain in good part why Flagler’s crime rate has been falling. Technology is certainly helping. But the county’s population has also been getting older in rather dramatic proportions. There’s a reason you need more than a dozen school resource officers patrolling our schools and not a single one patrolling our assisted living facilities.
Amazingly, or perhaps not so amazingly, considering the Shetland wool over their eyes, not a single elected official at the county or the city bothered raising those questions, ceding instead to the seeming infallibility of a study with the imprint of a university acronym.
To the study’s credit, the population projections it relied on for its overall ratio analysis is based on the University of Florida’s mid-range projections. But even those mid-range projections have been wildly overstated over the years. In 2006, UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research estimated a midrange projection of 168,000 people in Flagler by 2020. Off by 54,000. Giving it the benefit of the doubt–the housing crash revamped assumptions–by 2011 the bureau might have had a reality check. It did not. Its medium projection for 2020 was 136,900, off by 23,000, and it was still projecting 158,000 people by 2025. Its low projection was closer to the mark.
The sheriff’s UNF study relies on an updated, midrange projection of 124,000 by 2025, which doesn’t seem too unreasonable based on recent permitting trends, though it’s still on the high side. But here’s where the study again goes wrong: when projecting the sheriff’s policing needs for the next few years, it uses the entire county’s population to conclude that the sheriff “was short 31 deputies in 2018.” It then inexplicably jumps from a ratio of 1.9 to a ratio of 2.0 per thousand to say the sheriff would need 78 more deputies by 2025. Why the ratio jump? Who knows.
As County Commissioner Dave Sullivan alluded to in some questioning of the numbers this week, those figures all ignore the police ranks in Bunnell and Flagler Beach. These are negligible. Flagler Beach has 16 uniformed officers. The Bunnell Police Department has 14 uniformed officers. If we’re looking at the county’s population as a whole, as the UNF study does, that’s an additional 30 officers in the mix, bringing policing ranks close to the desired mark–even the 2.0 per thousand standard the study unrealistically projects. When you consider all these factors together, the conclusion that we’re already over-policing Flagler is not at all unreasonable. The suggestion that we need 25 more deputies next year is.
Which makes this next part of the context of the ongoing policing discussion in Palm Coast and the county even more mind boggling.
A sheriff’s representative and Mayor David Alfin last week spoke of the city’s policing budget as an afterthought. What they meant by that is that the sheriff was not at the budgeting table from the start of the process, which is a mistake on Palm Coast’s part. Apparently the county, after its initial meeting with the sheriff’s representative, also did not sustain the back-and-forth discussions. So procedurally maybe the two governments could have done better, although we shouldn’t overplay the importance of behind-the-scenes negotiations: this is the public’s business, after all. Most of it should take place in open meetings.
But any suggestion that this “afterthought” translated to the numbers is disingenuous. The sheriff’s budget in Palm Coast is growing by 30 percent, or $1.2 million, assuming the council approves the budget in its latest form. That’s far the largest increase in proportionate and absolute terms of any city department. It granted six of the 10 requested deputies, after adding five in 2018 and five last year. (I initially and mistakenly reported three. In fact, two were approved to start Jan. 1, two more to start on May 1, and a fifth, paid through the Town Center district, starting last October.) Sixteen deputies in three years is not an afterthought. It’s happening at the expense of other city necessities.
No one is questioning that deputies are busy. But they’re busy doing things that have nothing to do with policing. There are shifts in Flagler where half the deputies’ logs are taken up by Baker Acts and administering Narcan to drug addicts because no one else is out there to take care of those mental health and addiction crises. We’d be better off alleviating deputies’ responsibilities by paying for a serious mental health and addiction safety net than continuing to add counselors dressed as deputies. That’s what we mean by shifting policing dollars.
The sheriff has COPs (community-oriented policing volunteers) to do traffic detail, take care of routine crash reports and keep an eye out in the community. I’m not suggesting that they should be answering Baker Acts and overdoses. But if law enforcement is going to continue to be responsible for these calls–as it shouldn’t be–policing should develop a similar corps of auxiliaries that do addiction and Baker Acts and let deputies do their policing duties. Staly himself has been clamoring for more serious funding of mental health services for years.
That’s not about to happen. This is Florida, after all, where lawmakers are as interested in investing in social services as they are in protecting voting rights. But chanting pro-police slogans? They’re all in. That leaves us with overfunding.
For a time it looked like Palm Coast and the county both were going to take the same approach: give the sheriff some of what he’s asking for, somewhere around the halfway mark, but not all. We don’t need a deputy on every corner. We already have cameras for that. It’s probably what the sheriff thought would happen anyway when he set his request sky high. It’s not for nothing that he’s the sharpest local politician. And there is a fair argument–one I think would have been stronger than the exaggerated ratio route or any claims of think ranks–that you build up your force in flush times so the community is prepared for leaner times ahead. That’s if the county and city were to meet the sheriff halfway.
But then came more pandering, first with Alfin, the Palm Coast mayor, intimating that the city’s budget could be more thoroughly analyzed–let’s hope he doesn’t mean fleeced–to give the sheriff all he wants. Then we had Monday’s pandering session at the County Commission, where at least three commissioners–Donald O’Brien, Greg Hansen and Joe Mullins–actually called for a tax rate decrease and full funding of the sheriff’s request, forcing the county administration to cut over $2 million from county services. I doubt the sheriff expected those twin booster shots back into the stratosphere. This in a year when the same commissioners helped the sheriff break ground on a $23 million Sheriff’s Ops center the commission is paying for, and that will be almost as large as the White House.
And you still think we’re not overfunding police? Our elected should get their eyes checked and try to be less servile to slogans. Let’s dispense with any claims of policing as an afterthought, get back to earth, and make sure we remember that the police is here to serve and protect us, budgets included, not the other way around.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here. A version of this piece aired on WNZF.
Lou says
Pierre, Great article, keep it up. We need level headed people like you expressing the true facts.
Your article should be a mandatory reading to all, who are participating in the County and City budget process.
Palm Coast Citizen says
Thank you for this, because the county’s Social Services and Housing are already stressed, with limited space, outdated software and thin staffing for what is needed, but if the count over funds this endeavor, they will likely look to Social Services to cut what is already excruciatingly tight.
R. S. says
Thank you for that thorough analysis. As always, right on target.
FlaglerFireworks says
Pierre’s rhetoric is always over the top, and I rarely have similar views. But I am in lockstep with him on this issue. Flagler County has a very low crime rate and increasing the police headcount is ludicrous!
There are many sins from current and prior administrations that need to be paid-off. Prioritizing additional police (and incurring another admin misstep) over other community needs for non-existent crimes is not acceptable.
Bill C says
“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”.
I had a friend who became schizophrenic and was responding well to medication, the difference in his behavior was remarkable, but as is common with people on life long medication, at some point they decide to stop taking it. A few days after he stopped taking it he stayed home from work for several days and didn’t call in sick. His employer became concerned and called the police. When they got to his house he resisted them, then they arrested him and put him in jail, where he was raped. What was his crime? He needed a trained psychologist, not overwhelming force.
David S. says
Damn we do not live in ORLANDO this must be stamped in Staly’s forehead.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Simple fixes:
Cancel the blatant waste of $23 million for the totally unnecessary Taj Mahal. 10,000 square foot office space is good enough for MANY municipalities in the US so there is no reason this won’t be enough space for his Majesty.
Unless there is a damn good reason how about ‘deputizing ‘ personnel from the over 200 non deputy positions? ( of course no cut too any benefits accumulated)
(I am also surprised he didn’t ask for money for masks for the deputies to have in their cars since he told me last year that I should pay for them – he didn’t have the money. Neither did he ask for money for masks for his staff nor did he ask for more money to buy fresh healthy food for ‘this prisoners’.)
Now if pot becomes legal I bet he’ll have so much empty space in his Green Roof Inn he’ll be able to use that building for the palace of his dreams.
Just sayin’ just wishin’
Shire reeve says
What do the other similar sized counties ratios look like and why? There has to be an explanation as to what the additional personnel will be doing and why they are needed to protect the community. The only thing the sheriff has said is he needs more staff to fit a ratio. Why exactly? It seems like a poor reason to spend money when there’s not a crime problem to fix.
Shark says
He also wants a $150,000 dollar Boston Whaler – !!!!!!!!
Ships stuck sir says
The only thing missing from this fantasy is the request for an EverGreen ship, modified into a sheriff’s ship called the “Sher-i-GreenRoofInn” to run up and down the Suez.. I mean Intracoastal Canal. It’s only like 287 mill more, and it can be run by COPS Mon-Fri. Tack it onto the docket!
Montecristo says
Ok, so all you complainers want crime to be at a minimum you need cops.
Fund him all that the Sheriff needs
But this is the caveat. He must continue to reduce crime statistics and performance based budget going forward after this year.
No pay increase for him unless he can substantially perform.
At this rate Staley will run his own department out of town. Budget wisely Sheriff.
Pierre you wrote a good article but I want a little crime where I live as possible.
Montecristo
Jimbo99 says
Here’s the ugly truth coming to roost, Spalsh Pad $ 5.6 million, Tennis Center/Pickleball Expansion another $ 7+ miilion, 2 moldy buildings purchased & resold at a loss that require a $ 20+ million FCSO facility to be built on swampland. Flagler County can’t afford to grow like that for population growth. We neither have the revenue nor the infrastructure to absorb the population growth in Flagler county.
Flagler is a rural county that is designed as a natural refuge for the Ocala Forest and Matanzas River estuaries. The individuals of this county can’t stop procreating long enough to understand that every human life that this county grows requires fresh water, sewage processing, electric & other energy that is the global warming issue. The crime Flagler is getting is local, but also a lot of it is coming from Jacksnville (Duval), Volusia, Seminole, Orange, to Miami-Dade & Tampa’s counties. I’d even bet some of the criminals here are going elsewhere, its a corridor of highways, I-95, I-4 and any other State highway & road that leads to & from Palm Coast & Flagler county.
The battle cry for building the splash pad & tennis expansion, attract families, build for the children & seniors. At the end of the day that is not the solely burden of the existing county residents. Yet it’s being treated that way. Flagler has a limited number of roads, N,S, E & W. Packing this area with apartments & new homes is growth that needs to pay for all of this along with the existing population. If the safety of children & seniors passed hose projects, FCSO (and a fire department) getting additional funding is necessitated. You wanted growth, it’s not cheap. I post frequently on these topics in FlaglerLive and it’s the same message I am on record for posting. It’s like nobody is reading listening or comprehending the reality. I’m not predicting the end of the world here, but the wealthier/wealthiest don’t want Hammock Dunes overrun and pay out more in taxation and the poor are going to be the drug houses FCSO has to shut down & never have enough money to pay their “fair, pro-rata” share. This is Biden-Harris in action. All this Federal money for this is going to disappear, if it’s even adequate enough to get the ball rolling on this overpopulation. Biden is a doddering old fool, he’s drunk off the 2020 election victory. Remember, he was going to get the VIRUS under control. We’re in the middle of stage 4 Delta variants outbreak. You’re looking at the most ineffective POTUS we’ve had since Carter. Actually they all have “sucked” they just spun their accomplishments as epic lies of making America better. Build Back Bigger & Better is contrary to the Green New Deal. More people will never be a Green New Deal for the planet Earth, regardless of how any government at any level spins that lie.
I’ll end this here, there’s enough food for thought to digest. If you want a school or anything else for your children, law enforcement & fire protection are necessary evils for growth of the human race for this county’s population. The debate is not even a debate really. The first time someone has a home invasion or is violated as robbed going forward, if it hits closer to home, your family or anyone you may know. You”ll then understand what the human race is about. Why the few ruin it for so many. I look up & down my street, damaged mailboxes & burnout tire tracks, it’s not the many neighbors, it’s always those few that are committing these crimes. That dimwit that discharged his firearm in a home or in the yard are just a couple of exampls, we’ve had 2 of those this year. These people seem to find their way into the neighborhoods of Palm Coast & Flagler county. Some of them may even be the black sheep of the family as related to others. We don’t need any more village idiots, we’re all stocked up here already.
Tired of the corruption says
Really? The most inefective POTUS since Carter? He has done more in the eight months he has been in office than trump did in 4 years. Your bias is showing.
Willie says
All that you mentioned is not because of me its Trumps fault. Why give the sheriff more money. Since trump lost gas has went up $1.00 and since the sheriff/ county wants to buy american made patrol cars the gas mileage in the police cars might be a little higher then a import car, that must be why I see them sitting on the side of the road all the time i don’t think they there is enough money in the budget to patrol the county. Theres alot of criminals coming from the surrounding counties those counties need to pick up there came there is no reason we should add enforcement for that. Thats on them, they probably voted fir trump to. Dang Trump decided to give the unemployed more money to stay at home so thats the reason my lawn care went up, no one wanted to work it took double the money for him to hire someone to help so now that cost me more money to get my grass cut. Then since Trump was in office they raised the minimum wage. In 3 years my 4 for 4 meal at wendys is going to cost 8 dollars. That 32 dollars when i want to take my kids to get some nuggets then the extra 2 dollars in gas because of the gas increase, thats to much and that trumps fault. I dont think we need to have the sheriffs office get any more money i don’t need them Im in a gated community and i will not be able to afford leaving in a year or so. Thanks Trump
Indigestion 🥴 says
Ok.. so now that YOU have finished digesting your words, that you just kept RAMBLING on AND on AND on about. Do you have enough Tums or any other type of antacids left over, or would you like to have one of the MANY deputies that we have ALL seen, day in and day out, just parked incognito 🥸 style in different locations doing ABSOLUTELY nothing, run over to CVS and get you some? Actually, they would thank you tremendously for throwing them a bone to liven up their shift.. OR on the other hand, they might just tell you to go do it yourself because you’re cutting into their incognito 🥸 parking time. Also, how and when do you have any time left in your day to go and look up and down your street?! 🤔 By constantly seeing all your comments on every single article, it seems that, the only time you have in your day is to wait for a new one to pop up so you can AGAIN, give yourself another chance of TRYING to preach your extreme right wing beliefs on others. Do not assume that I am a Democrat Sir, because you would AGAIN be incorrect. Last question, is Staly’s fairytale 🧚🏼♂️ budget that ridiculously OVERBOARD so, he has enough to keep you shining his ego and cowboy boots??
Oh yeah! I’m sorry, I almost forgot!! I do have to give credit where credit is due…
You are absolutely right about ONE thing though. PRESIDENT Biden DID have a 2020 VICTORY ✌️
Which only means ONE other thing, your man Trump, did NOT have a 2020 victory 👎🏼
flatsflyer says
Let me ask a simple question, do you where a mask and have you been vaccinated, complaint about Biden’s performance on handlingthe virus is stupid compared to the total ignorance and lack of caring by your golfing buddy Trump. He was more interested in issuing pardons for his criminal friends than doing anything to help people.
Florida Voter says
Also @Montecristo
The whole idea of reducing police funding is to HELP the POLICE.
You seem to be missing the point of the article entirely. Yes, we need police. Nobody ever said we don’t need police (except in Seattle … look at how that turned out). Yes, we need police, obviously, but:
Why have police respond to mental health issues? Police should not be mental health counselors. Let actual mental health counselors do the mental health counseling. Fund mental health responders.
LET POLICE POLICE!
Why have police respond to every traffic accident … especially 9 patrol units??
https://flaglerlive.com/117757/sheriff-lichty-crash/
Let cameras catch people who run red lights. Use the “ring” video when a house gets burglarized. Oh, they already do and we’ve seen the police become more effective as a result, thereby reducing the number of officers that we actually need.
Also, when looking at the number of officers, don’t exclude the city police (Bunnell and Flagler Beach)
And lastly: don’t base your request on an old, outdated, flawed, “study.” The money in the budget is real money; it’s a real budget. It should be based on reality, not fantasy.
Steve says
600000 folks that would disagree with what you say on every comment. Free orange koolaid to the right dumbo errrr jimbo
Steve says
First of All great Article. Isee you are doing everyones homework for them again Nice Analysis. The request is tres excessive. One has to ask themselves what will they all do. Filling the space of new HQs if it ever gets built? The Salary increase on Budget would be massive in just a short time. Way too much power in the FCSO hands already. Make do with what you have.
A.j says
Over funding the police department. Never heard that before. Police dept. need funding, over funding, wow. Someone said, African Americans, help fund the police by paying taxes. We fund the police to gun us down us down unarmed. Go figure.
Flatsflyer says
I’ll support his request when he reigns in the the social gathering of officers when issuing traffic tickets or any other type of service. Please tell me when was the last tie you saw a single officer do anything with out backup. In many cases we see a half a dozen cars respond to a single incident. This is not just a Palm Coast problem but watch any news station of your choice and watch the comedy show when cars are crashing into each other and officers are just standing around running up the overtime clock.
DirkDiggler says
Right?!? I mean who are they to want a little backup when their life is on the line? I agree with you. Complete bull that they should want to be careful, especially with so little attacks on cops these days. No one ever attacks cops, or puts them in harms way. In fact, they shouldn’t even have guns. I think we should dress them up in pink dresses and give them big foamy finger to wave at the law breakers. That ought to work swell!
The nerve of some people…
Michael says
You’ll be the first ones to complain when you call 911 and you don’t get the quick response you want. Maybe more Counselors responding in electric vehicles are what you your looking for.
ActualCopwhy?DualityofMan. says
Yeah this PD is clearly over funded.
And anyone who thinks they understand what defund the police really means its not what you think it means.
“Defund the police” is a slogan that supports divesting funds from police departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources.
Educate yourself:
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/19/what-does-defund-the-police-mean-and-does-it-have-merit/
(Should We Rethink American Policing?)
(America’s Police Problem)
(Why Resist Arrest? | Renegade Cut)
(Why Riots Happen | Renegade Cut)
JF says
What a JOKE! As a former LEO in this county I can assure you that this is overkill. I live in the north end of Palm Coast and have lived here for almost 27 years. I have never and I mean never seen a single deputy community policing.
If we need more deputies this bad answer this question. Why at night can you drive around to almost any convenient store/gas station or in parking lots are there always 2,3 even 4 patrol cars just sitting in one spot? Go to Denny’s after midnight and you will find 4-5 deputies in there for well over an hour. Way past their allotted break time.
This has got to be the most embarrassing thing that is about to happen to our county.
Foxtrot Charlie Xray says
I would suggest you “overfund” your personal house hold. You could hire 700 police officers BUT when you need them the most, they won’t be there to save you or your family. Whens the last time you saw the motto ” To Protect and Serve ” on the side of ANY police vehicle ?……. There’s a reason why that was removed……… Save your own family. Invest in firearms and training. This country is on its last legs. Prepare Patriots the BAD times are coming, yes even to this little place called Palm Coast.
Steve says
Another fear monger. Hve been hearing this for 30 years. Go back to your bunker
Dennis says
Staley wants to build an empire. Stop his madness to spend our tax dollars. Budget requests are always way higher than needed. They are almost assured to be cut. Staley is getting greedy here.
Edith Campins says
So the Sheriff touts the good job he has done and how crime is down. Why, then, do we need 25 more officers? This in addition to the new building we are having to build for him because he doesn’t want to rehab the old building? Where is the money to pay for all this coming from? The taxpayers.
Ron says
Actually I would like to know the financial credentials of the board of county commissioners. It seems to me that they can not even balance their own check books. Most of them do not read over documents prior to deciding. What sun shine laws do they pretend to follow. Dave O’ Brien should have adopted the workshops suggested by Andy Dance. This commission has made bad decisions that cost this county millions of dollars. Do not throw the sheriff under the bus he is only trying to get the best deal for his subordinates. If these commissioners do not want to do their homework what purpose do they have? It seems to me the best solution is to have the county staff craft a budget and have the public vote on it. Let’s not have another debacle like Bings landing, Sears building or the Mold infected Sheriff Operation Center.
A concerned Observer says
You can please SOME of the people ALL of the time. You can please ALL of the people SOME of the time. You cannot please ALL of the people ALL of the time!
The City of Palm Coast and Flagler County are growing rapidly. I’ve seen more new single home construction in my neighborhood in the past year than I’ve seen in all of the previous six years. High density living areas are being constructed at what seems to be an ever increasing rate. This growth could be driven by COVID-19, the skyrocketing price for single family homes outside of our area, or it could simply be because outsiders are realizing that this is a great place to live with a cost of living which is lower and an overall better quality of life that is better here than where they are leaving. Are things changing here? Most definitely so. Many of our citizens would love no new affordable homes or new high concentration apartments being built in their neighborhood that existed a few years ago. I understand that but understand that what we are experiencing here is also going on pretty much everywhere and likely at a faster pace than here. Infrastructure will need to be added and maintained. I suspect the Sheriff’s algorithm for more manpower and material requests is based upon recent and projected growth. We cannot afford to let this support slip behind the power curve. Playing catch-up can likely be painful and even more costly than keeping slightly ahead of it.
Concerned Citizen says
If you take a hard look at FCSO you can see why Staley needs such a big budget.
All the varied uniforms each division wears come at a price. All the different brand new vehicles come at a price. I was down at Atlantis Office Park the other day. The Sheriffs Office is leasing a unit # 56 I believe to do all the tinting on their vehicles. Why? They have space at the Jail and the Ops Center. Why lease a space and incur extra money. And let inmates run around unsecured? They let him build new buildings at the drop of a hat.
This guy continues to spend money. And our Commissioners are afraid to say no. I don’t understand that part. Likewise Palm Coast should not have to pay to receive Law Enforcement Services. Palm Coast is in Flagler County and thus in the Sheriff’s jurisdiction. He’s legally obligated to furnish those services. If you can’t make it work with what you have find a way. But don’t stand there and tell the City and constituents that if you don’t get ex amount of money you might not be able to do your job. That’s black mail anywhere else. I still shake my head at how FCSO landed that sweetheart deal.
Staley has become all about him. And it’s time someone put him in check. And remind him what the job is all about. Before he bankrupts this county.
DirkDiggler says
Really great writing here. I was almost convinced! That is until I remembered I was reading the opinion of someone who writes articles like this for a living, on a website that looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1998, rather than being out on the street enforcing our laws. Sorry but I’ll take Sheriff Staly’s opinion over Pierre’s lol.
Jay tomm says
You are all forgetting the sudden & rapid GROWTH of Flagler county. Population is forecast to triple in 5-6 years. With that comes crime, bad people, drugs, more people breaking laws. I have seen this happen in past areas I lived. The gov & police were not prepared & it made life miserable. We all need to be proactive & not reactive. I rather not have a crime wave to need to get more cops after. And what most of you don’t know is that several key figures have just retired. This pushes leadership up & leaves areas where more police are needed.
Flagler commission is known for Indian giving, & backstabbing. They tell you one thing, & turn around & do something else. I’d be asking for this now too, cause in 3 years he’ll never get what’s needed.
MR.Wise says
Flagler County Residents , I urge You all to Either to Print all these articles pertaining to this about Funding 25 More officers & Any other Concerns You may Have , and Direct them Toward Higher Official Such as Internal Affairs These guys Can determine what Flagler County needs and What it Does not need . FACT : Trust Me There is All ways “Higher Authority” IA / Internal Affairs is All ways available to Assist . You can either Call them or Mail all these Comments to the via mail .
FlaglerLive says
If by “Internal Affairs” you mean either the sheriff’s internal investigative arm or that of FDLE, it is not their jurisdiction. This matter is to be decided exclusively by the County Commission and the Palm Coast City Council.