The first priority must be saving lives. When someone overdoses, deputies, fire-rescue, dispatchers, and emergency medical personnel must treat that call as an immediate life-threatening emergency. Fentanyl changes the timeline. Minutes matter.

But the response cannot end when the person is revived, transported, or pronounced deceased. One of the weaknesses in the current response is that overdose aftermath investigations are not always being handled with the seriousness PBSO publicly suggests. In reality, many overdose cases are not adequately followed up on by narcotics investigators. Too often, cases stall because of a lack of cooperation, limited manpower, or the belief that there is not enough information to pursue the source of the drugs.

That is not good enough.

Every overdose should be treated as an intelligence opportunity. Even when a victim or family member does not cooperate, there may still be phones, witnesses, social media contacts, prior calls, hotel records, vehicle information, drug packaging, overdose location history, and connections to other cases. If the same dealer, same location, same phone number, or same drug source is tied to multiple overdoses, PBSO should be identifying that pattern quickly.

As Sheriff, I would strengthen overdose follow-up by assigning additional narcotics agents or detectives to districts with the highest overdose activity. District-based narcotics investigators would have better familiarity with local users, dealers, hotels, apartment complexes, problem houses, recovery housing issues, and neighborhood patterns. Centralized narcotics has value, but district-level familiarity matters. Deputies and local investigators who know the people and places are often better positioned to connect the dots.

The response should include:

• Immediate emergency response and naloxone use when appropriate.
• Mandatory overdose follow-up protocols for fatal and nonfatal overdoses.
• District-level narcotics agents or detectives in high-overdose areas.
• Better use of phones, witnesses, overdose scenes, prior calls, and intelligence patterns.
• Follow-up with survivors and families after nonfatal overdoses.
• Overdose mapping to identify repeat locations, dealers, hotels, residences, and clusters.
• Clear accountability when overdose cases receive no meaningful follow-up.

Palm Beach County cannot afford a system where an overdose is treated like a medical call only. It is a medical emergency, a family crisis, and often a criminal investigation. If someone is poisoning people in our community, we need to know who they are.

PBSO does a great job in many cases investigating, targeting, and disrupting fentanyl sales and distribution. The men and women working narcotics cases deserve credit for the dangerous work they do. They are often dealing with violent offenders, armed traffickers, repeat dealers, and drug networks that do not care how many people die.

But strong law enforcement work can be undone if prosecution, plea deals, bond decisions, or sentencing outcomes do not match the seriousness of the crime. If deputies and detectives build solid fentanyl trafficking cases, but the offenders are quickly back on the street, the public deserves to know where the breakdown happened.

As Sheriff, I would make PBSO more instrumental in helping the public understand the entire process. I would not allow the Sheriff’s Office to quietly take the blame for failures that happen later in the system. If a fentanyl dealer is arrested and the case is reduced, dismissed, undercharged, lightly sentenced, or weakened in court, the public should know that. If the issue is evidence, say that. If the issue is witness cooperation, say that. If the issue is prosecution, sentencing, or court policy, say that too.

Transparency matters because fentanyl enforcement does not end at arrest. Arrests are only the beginning. The public deserves to know whether the system is actually holding dangerous fentanyl dealers accountable.

The response should include:

• Aggressive targeting of fentanyl traffickers, repeat dealers, and distribution networks.
• Strong investigations into fatal overdoses with a supply-chain mindset.
• Better case tracking from arrest through prosecution and sentencing.
• Public reporting on major fentanyl cases and outcomes.
• Clear identification of where cases break down.
• Strong partnerships with state, federal, and local prosecutors.
• No political protection for weak points in the process.

Palm Beach County should be compassionate toward addiction, but ruthless toward people who knowingly sell poison. If someone is profiting from fentanyl deaths, the community deserves aggressive enforcement and honest reporting on whether the justice system followed through.

Enforcement alone will not solve the fentanyl crisis. Palm Beach County needs prevention before addiction, intervention before death, and treatment options before jail becomes the only answer.

I am very serious about bringing back a modern version of the Drug Farm concept for first-time users, low-level drug offenders, and people whose addiction is driving criminal behavior. This should not be viewed as being soft on crime. It is the opposite. It is recognizing that if addiction is the engine behind repeated thefts, disorder, family destruction, homelessness, overdoses, and jail cycling, then we need a place where people can be separated from the streets, held accountable, treated, supervised, and given a real chance to recover.

The old model does not have to be recreated exactly as it was. A modern version should include substance abuse treatment, work structure, counseling, accountability, drug testing, vocational training, mental health support, family involvement, faith-based and nonprofit partnerships where appropriate, and strong reentry planning. The goal should be simple: stop first-time and low-level offenders from becoming lifelong offenders.

Palm Beach County already has drug court and treatment resources, but the county needs a stronger bridge between arrest, treatment, accountability, and recovery. Too many people are revived, released, arrested, processed, released again, and then eventually found dead. That cycle is unacceptable.

The response should include:

• A serious plan to bring back a modern Drug Farm-style treatment and accountability program.
• Priority access for first-time users and low-level offenders whose crimes are addiction-driven.
• Stronger connection between PBSO, Drug Court, treatment providers, recovery programs, and families.
• Honest school and parent education about fentanyl, counterfeit pills, and overdose warning signs.
• Post-overdose outreach for survivors and families.
• Strong recovery housing accountability.
• Public reporting on opioid settlement money and whether it is actually reducing overdoses.
• Programs that combine compassion, accountability, structure, and measurable outcomes.

Palm Beach County cannot arrest its way out of fentanyl, but it also cannot simply hand out brochures and hope people survive. We need a full-spectrum response: save the person, investigate the source, prosecute the dealer, support the family, and create real treatment pathways for people who are ready to get clean.

Success means fewer overdose deaths, stronger overdose follow-up, more fentanyl dealers held accountable, better public reporting on case outcomes, more families connected to help, and a real treatment option for people who are early enough in addiction to be saved.

In 2024, Palm Beach County had hundreds of overdose-related emergencies and hundreds of drug deaths. That is not just a public health problem. It is a public safety problem. Every overdose represents a person, a family, a drug source, and a moment where the system either responds with urgency or lets the pattern continue.

As Sheriff, my approach would be clear: compassion for the addicted, urgency for the overdosing, support for the families, transparency for the public, and aggressive enforcement against those who profit from poisoning Palm Beach County.

 Public Safety Problems Facing The Acreage and Loxahatchee 

The Acreage and Loxahatchee are not communities that can be policed with a standard suburban model. These western communities are spread out, rural in character, family-centered, equestrian, and heavily dependent on roadways, canals, swales, and large residential lots. A deputy working this area is not just patrolling neighborhoods. He or she is covering long distances, dark roads, acreage properties, schools, horse farms, equipment yards, construction sites, parks, and major travel corridors that carry residents, commuters, commercial traffic, and visitors moving through the western part of Palm Beach County.

Public safety in this area depends heavily on PBSO District 15 for Loxahatchee and The Acreage, and District 17 for Loxahatchee Groves. That matters because this community cannot be treated like a smaller, denser city where deputies are always minutes away from the next call. The geography alone creates challenges. Response times, visibility, crime prevention, traffic enforcement, and emergency preparedness all require a district-level plan that understands the layout of the community and the way people actually live there.

Traffic safety is one of the clearest public safety issues facing The Acreage and Loxahatchee. Roads like Seminole Pratt Whitney, Okeechobee Boulevard, Southern Boulevard, Northlake Boulevard, Orange Boulevard, Hall Boulevard, Coconut Boulevard, and other local connectors carry a mix of school traffic, commuter traffic, construction traffic, trailers, equestrian vehicles, agricultural equipment, and daily neighborhood drivers. When speeding, distracted driving, aggressive passing, and careless school-zone behavior are ignored, the danger is not theoretical. It affects children, families, bicyclists, pedestrians, horseback riders, and everyone trying to move safely through the area.

School zone safety deserves special attention. Loxahatchee Groves has already moved toward school zone speed enforcement because the town recognized that reckless driving around schools presents a real risk. That same concern applies across the broader Acreage and Loxahatchee area. These are family communities with children being dropped off, picked up, walking, biking, waiting at bus stops, and traveling along roads that were not always designed for the volume of traffic they now carry. School safety cannot be limited to what happens inside the school building. It has to include the roads, bus stops, intersections, and neighborhoods around those schools.

Property crime also has a different meaning in The Acreage and Loxahatchee. In more urban areas, property crime may mean vehicle burglaries, package theft, and retail theft. Those issues exist here too, but this area also has barns, trailers, tools, ATVs, UTVs, mowers, generators, fuel tanks, horse tack, feed storage, equipment yards, sheds, construction materials, and large properties where offenders may have more space and more time if patrol visibility is weak. A crime prevention plan for this area has to understand rural property crime, not just subdivision property crime.

Equestrian and agricultural concerns must also be part of public safety planning. The Acreage and Loxahatchee communities include residents whose animals, equipment, land, and rural lifestyle are central to their daily lives. Loose livestock, reckless driving near horses, fireworks near animal areas, trespassing on canal banks, illegal dumping, theft from barns, and disputes involving fences, gates, easements, and property access can all create safety issues. These are not minor neighborhood complaints. In this community, they can become real quality-of-life and public safety problems.

The road, canal, swale, and drainage system also creates a unique public safety challenge. The Indian Trail Improvement District plays a major role in roads, drainage, canals, swales, and infrastructure in The Acreage. That means law enforcement cannot operate in isolation. When heavy rain, flooding, road deterioration, blocked swales, canal access, or storm debris affects a neighborhood, it also affects emergency response. A deputy, firefighter, ambulance, or rescue vehicle still has to get to the call. Public safety planning has to include coordination with the agencies responsible for the infrastructure that determines whether help can reach people quickly.

Juvenile issues also need early attention. In large family communities, juvenile problems can start small: school fights, social media conflicts, reckless driving, vandalism, theft from vehicles, trespassing, parties, disorder at parks, or repeated nuisance behavior around certain locations. If those patterns are ignored, they can become bigger criminal problems. The goal should not be to over-police young people. The goal should be to identify patterns early, involve parents, schools, youth programs, and deputies, and stop small issues from becoming long-term criminal behavior.

Quality-of-life enforcement matters in The Acreage and Loxahatchee because people moved there for space, peace, animals, family, and a specific way of life. Illegal dumping, trespassing, reckless off-road vehicle use, speeding on residential roads, chronic noise complaints, nuisance properties, theft from open lots, and repeated disorder complaints can damage that way of life quickly. These issues should not be brushed off as “just rural living.” A strong Sheriff’s Office should know the difference between a rural lifestyle and a preventable public safety problem.

Loxahatchee Groves also highlights another issue: residents need clarity on law enforcement coverage. The public debate over PBSO dedicated patrol services showed that people want to know what they are paying for, what level of service they are receiving, and whether their community has enough visible patrol presence. Public safety should never be reduced to a budget argument without clear service expectations. Residents deserve transparency, measurable performance, and a clear understanding of what law enforcement coverage actually looks like in their town.

Growth is another pressure point. Western Palm Beach County is changing. Westlake, new development, road improvements, population growth, schools, commercial activity, and increasing traffic are all affecting the area around The Acreage and Loxahatchee. The Sheriff’s Office has to plan ahead instead of waiting until growth creates the next set of problems. If the western communities are growing, then staffing, traffic enforcement, investigative follow-up, school safety, and emergency response planning have to grow with them.

As Sheriff, I would treat The Acreage and Loxahatchee as a unique rural and exurban patrol environment, not as an extension of a suburban district. The size, layout, road conditions, and property types require a patrol strategy built around visibility, response readiness, and smart deployment. I would review call volume, response times, road access, repeat-call locations, and crime patterns to ensure manpower is being placed where it actually reduces problems. Residents should not feel forgotten simply because they live farther west or on larger lots.

Traffic enforcement in The Acreage and Loxahatchee must be more strategic and more visible. I would focus on the roads where speeding, aggressive driving, school traffic, crash risk, and resident complaints overlap. That means deputies should not just sit randomly and write tickets. They should be deployed based on crash data, school schedules, complaint patterns, and the real movement of traffic through the community. Speeding through rural residential areas, dangerous passing, distracted driving, and reckless behavior around trailers, horses, pedestrians, and school buses should be taken seriously.

School zone enforcement should be one of the clearest priorities in this area. Deputies should be visible during arrival and dismissal times, especially near schools, high-volume bus stops, and roadways where children are exposed to speeding or distracted drivers. Enforcement should focus on speeding, stop-arm violations, unsafe drop-offs, blocked intersections, aggressive driving, and drivers who ignore the reality that children are present. A child walking to a bus stop on a rural road deserves the same level of protection as a child walking to school in a more developed city.

Property crime in The Acreage and Loxahatchee has to be addressed with a rural crime mindset. I would focus on vehicle burglaries, trailer thefts, equipment thefts, ATV and UTV thefts, generator thefts, barn entries, construction site thefts, package theft, and crimes of opportunity on large lots. This requires directed patrol, stronger neighborhood communication, repeat-location analysis, and better follow-up when similar crimes occur across nearby streets or properties. Residents should feel that PBSO is looking for patterns, not just writing reports after the fact.

The Sheriff’s Office should work more directly with residents who own horses, livestock, trailers, barns, and equipment. That means crime prevention messaging tailored to this community: securing trailers, marking equipment, using cameras on long driveways, improving lighting, reporting suspicious vehicles, documenting serial numbers, and creating better communication between deputies and rural property owners. The Acreage and Loxahatchee need a public safety strategy that respects the fact that animals, land, and equipment are part of daily life here.

I would strengthen early juvenile intervention in the western communities. When young people begin showing patterns of theft, vandalism, fights, trespassing, reckless driving, or disorderly behavior, deputies should work with schools, parents, and community programs before the pattern becomes worse. The goal is not to criminalize every mistake. The goal is to intervene early, hold people accountable, and give families and schools support before a young person becomes a repeat offender.

Quality-of-life issues should be handled consistently. Illegal dumping, nuisance properties, repeated disorder complaints, trespassing, reckless off-road activity, chronic noise problems, and unsafe behavior around canals or roadways should not be ignored until residents are furious. I would expect deputies to identify repeat locations, coordinate with code enforcement or the appropriate district agencies, and create a follow-up plan. The measure of success is not how many times deputies respond to the same location. The measure of success is whether the problem stops.

The Sheriff’s Office must work closely with Indian Trail Improvement District, Palm Beach County, and Loxahatchee Groves leadership on issues that affect emergency response and public safety. Roads, swales, canals, drainage, signage, road closures, flooding, and storm debris all affect whether deputies and rescue personnel can reach people quickly. Public safety is not only about patrol cars. It is also about access, communication, infrastructure, and planning before emergencies happen.

The western communities need strong storm and flooding preparedness. When heavy rain or tropical weather affects the area, road access, canal levels, swales, downed trees, livestock concerns, and isolated properties can all become public safety issues. I would make sure PBSO has a clear storm-response plan for The Acreage and Loxahatchee, including pre-storm communication, post-storm damage checks, blocked-road reporting, coordination with infrastructure agencies, and priority response for vulnerable residents.

For Loxahatchee Groves, law enforcement coverage must be transparent and measurable. If the town contracts for enhanced PBSO services, residents deserve to know what that means: how many deputies, what hours, what patrol expectations, what traffic enforcement, what reporting, and what outcomes. If the town receives standard county-level service, residents should understand that as well. Public safety should not operate in confusion. People should know what level of service they are receiving and what results they are getting for their money.

I would support a stronger rural crime watch model for The Acreage and Loxahatchee. This should include neighborhood watch, equestrian community contacts, business owners, school representatives, park users, and residents in areas with repeated theft or traffic complaints. Deputies should know the people who know the area. Residents often recognize suspicious vehicles, unusual activity, repeat trespassers, and problem locations before anyone else does. The Sheriff’s Office should make it easier for that information to reach the right people and turn into action.

As western Palm Beach County continues to grow, the Sheriff’s Office must review how new development affects traffic, calls for service, school safety, and patrol coverage. Growth cannot be allowed to quietly overwhelm public safety. New roads, new neighborhoods, new schools, commercial activity, and increased population should trigger a serious review of manpower, traffic enforcement, emergency access, and investigative needs. The western communities deserve planning before the problems become obvious.

Success in The Acreage and Loxahatchee looks like better traffic compliance, safer school zones, fewer rural thefts, faster identification of repeat problem locations, stronger deputy visibility, better communication with residents, and a law enforcement strategy that understands rural life. It means residents see deputies not only when something bad happens, but before problems grow. It means the Sheriff’s Office understands the difference between patrolling a dense city and protecting a spread-out western community.

The Acreage and Loxahatchee are important parts of Palm Beach County’s identity. They represent family, land, animals, independence, and a quality of life that many residents worked hard to build. Protecting that requires more than answering calls. It requires planning, visibility, coordination, and leadership that understands the community. That is the kind of Sheriff’s Office I would bring to The Acreage and Loxahatchee.