 Local Gov |
Sheriff
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Next Election: November 2020 DescriptionThe Palm Beach County Constitutional Officers, including Sheriff, Clerk/Comptroller, Property Appraiser, Tax Collector, Supervisor of Elections, State's Attorney, and Public Defender are chosen in a county-wide election for a four year term. Located on the southeast coast, Palm Beach County is the largest of Florida's 67 counties. The County's 2,228 square miles include 1,977 square miles of land and 251 square miles of surface water¹, making it one of the largest counties east of the Mississippi River. HistoryIncumbent Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is the 16th Palm Beach County Sheriff in a succession stretching back to first Sheriff George B. Baker in 1909. First elected in 2004, he won 57% of the vote against challenger Ken Eggleston to replace retiring Sheriff Ed Bieluch, and was re-elected in 2008 with 89%, defeating Cleamond Lee Walker, and in 2012 with 79%, defeating challengers Joe Talley (18%) and Cleamond Walker again (4%). Demographics
|
View Palm Beach County in a larger map |
|---|
 Rick Bradshaw INCUMBENT |
Background Ric Bradshaw has spent a career in law enforcement. Born March 14, 1948, he grew up in Lake Worth and joined the West Palm Beach Police Department in 1971. Holding a BS in Human Resources Management and an MS in Adminstration, he rose through the ranks and was appointed Chief of Police in 1996, a position in which he served until elected Sheriff in 2004. In that year, he won 57% of the vote against former PBSO Undersheriff Ken Eggleston to replace retiring Sheriff Ed Bieluch. In 2004, He campaigned on the promise to add more deputies, improve community policing, and to make the budget easier to understand. He has added more deputies and grown PBSO from 3,210 employees in 2004 to today's 3,924. The budget on the other hand, may be easier to understand but its detail is largely inaccessible to the public, unlike in Martin County, where full disclosure is made on the MSO website. He easily won re-election in 2008 against a poorly funded campaign run by Cleamond Walker, a truck driver employed by Waste Management, without any law enforcement experience. In the August, 2012 election, Sheriff Bradshaw prevailed with 79% of the vote, defeating Joe Talley (18%) and Cleamond Walker (4%). During his 8 years in office, Sheriff Bradshaw is credited with increasing PBSO effectiveness in community policing, homeland security, and anti-gang efforts, and expanded juridiction by taking over the law enforcement functions in Lake Worth, Royal Palm Beach, Mangonia Park and the Glades cities. In yearly budget battles with the county adminstrator, he has demanded and received an ever larger share of Ad-valorem tax dollars, growing the PBSO budget 77% in eight years, and has been successful in attracting federal and state dollars, including a contract to house federal prisoners in the county jail. His critics fault his lack of budget tranparency and resistance to Inspector General oversight. Sheriff Bradshaw receives substantial support in the neighborhoods where community policing is a factor and has allies among those homeowners associations. He is a controversial figure though, and a website critical of Bradshaw (pbsotalk.com) has been operating as a place for current and former employees to come with their complaints. This website was responsible for the airplane banner that was flown over the Honda Classic and the West Palm Beach Boat Show saying "Your Sheriff is a Crook", and its owner filed state ethics charges against the Sheriff for alleged fraud which were dropped for lack of evidence. |
|---|
 Lauro Diaz |
Background |
|---|
