By Patrick Sherry
Officials from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) presented the agency’s annual report at the Wellington Village Council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 26.
The report, which included details for calendar year 2024 and plans going forward in 2025 and beyond, covered PBSO District 8, which serves the Village of Wellington. Key findings included reduced crime rates across the board throughout the village last year.
Council members praised the PBSO and local deputies for their continued efforts to keep Wellington safe.
“You guys are definitely the best of the best, so thank you,” Councilwoman Amanda Silvestri said. “This was a great report.”
Lt. Matthew LaVigna represented the PBSO in place of Capt. Nichole Addazio, commander of District 8, who was recovering from surgery. He explained to the council that there were more than 91,000 total calls for service in 2024 — a three percent increase from last year, and continuing a steady upward trend since 2021.
However, he emphasized that the majority of these calls were self-initiated, which deputies conduct on their own, rather than getting prompted by residents.
“The increase you are seeing is due to the deputies being more proactive, not necessarily the calls for service coming into the sheriff’s office,” LaVigna said. “I also want to point out there has been significant growth within the village as far as size and population over this time period as well.”
Despite the increase in calls for service, the agency has experienced a 25 percent drop in the crime index since 2023. The reduction comes from a decline in crime in areas including burglaries, thefts, vandalism and more. Overall, the report showed that the village has some of the lowest crime totals across the categories in 15 years.
Robbery incidents and mail theft cases experienced some of the greatest decreases in 2024. Robberies dropped by 50 percent, while mail thefts fell by 74 percent, with only nine cases being reported this past year, compared to 34 cases in 2023.
One notable aspect in the decline in mail thefts was detectives being able to identify how these crimes were being committed, which led to the removal of certain mailboxes and major operations being conducted. In fact, these cases in Wellington were used by other nearby districts as predicate crimes to target a crime ring.
However, stolen vehicles and vehicle burglaries remain a persistent issue in Wellington, even with reductions. The report indicated that the majority of these cases were caused by vehicles being left unlocked, unsecured and/or with the keys inside them.
“This crime is a crime of opportunity,” LaVigna said. “If you park in lighted areas, or if you park where you have surveillance cameras monitoring, not only will it help an investigation, but it will help deter the crime from occurring to begin with.”
Traffic issues and car crashes were another main focal point of the annual report. Deputies set a performance goal of maintaining a crash rate of less than three crashes per 100 village residents. They were able to not only see decreases in crashes but also achieved a crash rate of about two percent for 2024.
Additionally, the report showed that while there was a high frequency in traffic stops, the number of citations and warnings overall fell. However, LaVigna said that these decreases were likely because of the reassignment of traffic units to other areas.
“Several factors contributed, including it being an election year, with the reassignment of our traffic units to assist with President Trump’s protection following two assassination attempts in his active campaign schedule,” LaVigna said. “Although they pulled a lot of our traffic units to those special details, we still had a very high call volume. But it was less than in previous years.”
LaVigna also explained that deputies from District 8 are going to continue to make combating golf cart incidents and calls for service at short-term rentals a priority.
This year, the PBSO conducted a large-scale operation that focused on education and the safety of golf carts. Community policing also created a public service announcement that was distributed on many media platforms.
Meanwhile, short-term rental incidents have risen by 55 percent since 2023. Deputies collaborated with the village to enact a chronic nuisance ordinance for recurring nuisance properties to address these issues. Combined with establishing a direct line of communication with short-term rental platforms Airbnb and VRBO, developing a real-time reporting system for neighbors and a dedicated PBSO liaison to follow up on complaints, LaVigna reported that the agency now has effective tools to take action against these cases.
Council members applauded deputies after the presentation. They also praised two members of the PBSO’s Citizen Observer Patrol program, who attended the meeting, volunteer Capt. Howard Gross and volunteer Capt. Ken Finkleman. They were both awarded “captain of the year” for 2024.
Overall, council members commended deputies on their continued efforts to keep the village safe.
“I so much appreciate everything all of you do,” Councilwoman Maria Antuña said. “You wake up every morning, and you go out to the streets. I personally pray for each and every one of you because I want you to come home safe. This is what you do for us. This report tells us that’s what you do every day — you keep us safe. That is a big task, and I personally want to say thank you.”
This year, LaVigna said that District 8 is continuing to see downward trends in all major crime categories while proactivity continues to increase. Going forward, goals are to continue to educate and address residents on e-bike and e-scooter usage and how to combat car thefts and burglaries. They also want to pursue grants to bring more resources into Wellington, as well as grow traffic enforcement to improve driver safety.
In related items on the meeting’s consent agenda, the council approved the village’s contract with the PBSO for fiscal year 2026, as well as an updated law enforcement services plan. The contract total for next year is $11,803,377, an increase of approximately $505,625 over the current fiscal year. The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
In other business:
- The council unanimously approved the second and final reading of an ordinance that removes restrictions on fuel type for watercrafts on village lakes and canals but continues enforcement of speed limits and prohibits certain waterway activities. The change was required due to a new state law that forbids Wellington’s previous restrictions against the use of gas motors.
- The council reminded residents that the village’s new School Zone Safety Program’s warning period ends Friday, Sept. 12. The program uses cameras to enforce speeding violations in school zones. Violations will start being issued after the warning period ends.
- The council thanked State Sen. Lori Berman and State Rep. Anne Gerwig for their support in getting a recent $650,000 state appropriation for the village’s pump station improvement project. Berman was unable to attend the meeting.
