Crime trends in Wellington have shown encouraging signs in 2024, with occasional exceptions in categories like vandalism, but officials are bracing for more ground to cover with a recent annexation and other challenges heading into 2025, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office report to a village committee.
“With the annexing of the new area, how was staffing increased?” asked Matthew Aldrich, a member of the village’s Public Safety Committee at a meeting Tuesday, Dec. 10.
He was referring to 258 acres that became part of Wellington, with the voting consent of landowners there, north of Southern Blvd. near Seminole Pratt Whitney Road.
That territory has begun to be incorporated into the PBSO’s District 8, which covers Wellington, officials said. The county agency provides police services to Wellington through a contract.
That will eventually drive up raw numbers for village crime statistics and accident reports simply because it’s more turf to deal with, though it has not come with an immediate change in staffing levels.
“The staffing hasn’t changed at this time,” said Lt. Robert Humphrey, representing the PBSO.
For now, the annexed area does not represent a large number of properties needing response to calls, he said.
“If anything, we’ll probably see more of an increase statistically for traffic crashes because we’ll be responsible for Seminole Pratt,” Humphrey said.
But the picture is likely to change over time. Village officials have initiated zoning changes that could see considerable commercial development along with more dense residential concentration in the annexed area, perhaps including multi-family units.
At the moment, Wellington is seeing most crime statistics come down in 2024.
“For the Village of Wellington, we’re actually down in almost every category,” Humphrey said.
For example, vehicle burglaries in Wellington fell 28 percent in the third quarter, compared to the three months before that, he said.
One category of crime that increased was criminal-mischief vandalism cases, but even that represented a minimal uptick — 14 cases in the third quarter, up by one from 13 in the prior quarter.
Traffic stops were down 21 percent in the third quarter compared to the previous three months, he said. In part, that reflected demands for personnel to respond to severe weather events or provide security for various election-year activities, leaving fewer resources for traffic work, Humphrey said.
It’s a bit soon to draw too many conclusions about Wellington’s 2024 crime picture, as full-year statistics won’t be processed for a while, and these can fluctuate with seasonal influxes of people.
Soon enough, the focus will be on a new year.
“At the turn of the year, with the Winter Equestrian Festival beginning in January, we’re going to have another operation that’s going out to focus on more DUIs and traffic enforcement,” Humphrey said. “Vehicular and pedestrian traffic is always greatly increased during those times.”
A report from Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue highlighted efforts to help patients survive cardiac arrests. Every minute before help arrives increases the chance of mortality by about 10 percent, Emergency Medical Services Capt. David Cooper explained.
In a recent batch of data involving a national registry, PBCFR helped 25 percent of patients survive until hospital admission, compared to 23 percent statewide and 20 percent nationally, he said.
A live demonstration of on-scene response work with a dummy at the meeting served to underscore how a growing number of first responders in the county now carry a wider and more effective range of blood products. These can help patients who have experienced traumatic blood loss.
In a recap of Wellington’s tornado event in October, the village had 229 properties damaged, 20 with major damage, and one destroyed, staff members said.
