The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 23

THE PALM BEACH POST TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1993 SB Update Lake Worth policing methods, consultant says By GEORGE BENNETT Palm Beach Post Staff Writer LAKE WORTH The city police department is too big, has too many administrators, uses obsolete techniques and gives too much power to its chief, a consultant says. The $20,000 study by Murphy, Mayo and Associates Inc. recommends replacing the department's "discredited" law enforcement philosophy with a "community-oriented policing" approach. The Alexandria, law enforcement consultant also says the chief should be chosen after a nationwide search and limited to no more than two four-year terms rather than hired from within and given life tenure, as is the current practice. The report praises rank-and-file officers, but criticizes police organization and administration and says retiring Chief Lee Reese "seems not to understand the role of the police in a free society." Reese, who plans to retire in March after 12 years, could not be reached Monday.

Mayor Rodney Romano said the report "makes a lot of common sense." Murphy, Mayo and Associates is headed by former New York City Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy, West Palm Beach Mayor Nancy Graham hired the firm in 1991 to evaluate the Robert Jewett case. Some highlights of the 55-page report on the Lake Worth department, which will be presented to city commissioners next week: With 98 officers and a population of about 30,000, Lake Worth's ratio of police to residents is more than double the U.S. average for similar-size cities. Its 74 officers and 24 supervisors give the department "top heavy organization." The department has grown 88 percent in personnel and 149 percent in spending over the past decade. Crime has increased 6 percent and population 7 percent.

"An exceptional growth in the department, at enormous cost to taxpayers, has not provided a fair return in the reduction of crime and fear," the consultant says. Officers rely too heavily on patrol cars to respond to incidents, which the consultant says is a "discredited" approach. The report recommends a top-to-bottom switch to community-oriented policing, with more emphasis on crime prevention and beat officers familiar with specific neighborhoods. A proposed city charter change to allow a nationwide search for a new chief is endorsed by the consultant. And the report calls life tenure for the chief "an unwise policy," noting that even the director of the FBI is limited to a 10-year term.

The department has been "destabilized" and officers demoralized by; an ongoing criminal investigation, the consultant says. State Attorney Barry Krischer started the probe in August after an officer claimed top police officials ordered a 1992 traffic stop of City Manager Kerry Willis to try to intimidate her. A recent exchange of testy letters between Reese's attorney and Romano over the criminal investigation shows "an improper attitude on the part of the chief concerning his subservience to his appointed and elected superiors." BThe department should hire more black and Hispanic officers, should eliminate polygraph tests in hiring, and should adopt a less-subjective promotion system. Pruitt must pay lien for firm's unpaid taxes lam i IUM It if 1 I 1B li Skeleton found near Wellington WELLINGTON Surveyors found a man's skeleton Monday in brush west of U.S. 441 near Southern Boulevard.

The body was clad in a Road Kill Cafe T-shirt, Palm Beach County sheriffs Detective Sgt. Ken Deischer said. Deischer declined to release the cause of the man's death, but said it could be foul play. The body was lying face up on the ground, several hundred feet from U.S. 441 and about half a mile south of Southern.

It could have been there for as long as a month. It was unclear whether the man died there or his body was dumped. No weapons were found. The man was white or Hispanic, age 25 to 45, and 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall, Deischer said. He was wearing Levi Strauss blue jeans and the T-shirt, which was green.

Anyone with information can call Deischer, 688-4014. By JIM REEDER Palm Beach Post Staff Writer FORT PIERCE Not even state legislators can escape the tax man. The state Division of Unemployment Compensation has filed a $3,067.23 lien against Rep. Ken Pruitt's well-drilling business because he didn't pay unemployment insurance taxes for the first quarter of 1993. Pruitt, R-Port St.

Lucie, blames a bad economy for his failure to pay the taxes owed by his business, St. Lucie Water Systems. In the slow economy, fewer houses are being built and fewer wells need to be drilled, although Pruitt said business is beginning to improve. He signed an agreement with the state to pay the money plus interest over a period of eight months. "My business is closely related to the building industry," Pruitt said.

"Just because I'm a state legislator doesn't mean I'm exempt from a bad economy." St. Lucie Water Systems once employed 65 people and had three offices, including one in Indian River County. Now the company is down, to 10 employees and one office, Pruitt said. "I've had to lay off a lot of employees and my unemployment compensation payments have gone sky high." The tax lien, filed in the St. Lucie County Courthouse Sept, 7.

is against property owned by St. Lucie Water Systems. "It clouds the title to any real property they own," said Russell Courson of the Division of Unemployment Compensation in Tallahassee. "They can't sell any property without satisfying the Pruitt paid $460 Aug. 24 and agreed to make eight monthly payments of $335 until the entire debt plus interest and a $12 filing fee are paid, according to records.

Man killed in apparent burglary By CHRISTINE KEATING Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Bjorn Oelson stayed close to home. His neighbors say he spent most days puttering around the lawn, clipping hedges and mowing the grass. Monday morning Oelson, 83, 'was found dead, apparently killed by a burglar in his suburban Lanta-na home, Sheriffs Sgt. William Springer said. A neighbor, who didn't want to be identified, and Oelson's visiting nurse found the man on the floor next to his bed about 10:30 a.m.

"He was a mellow guy," the 23-year-old neighbor said. "He didn't smile too much, but he was never mad. He would feed our cats." Oelson, who lived at 7757 Ter-1 race Road, was not married, and 'officials said they don't believe he has any living relatives. Oelson had a nurse check on him every day and do his shopping. When she arrived Monday, she couldn't find Oelson.

She went next door to have the neighbor help her check the house. Police would not say how he was killed, but an autopsy is being performed. "I can't believe somebody would do this," said Steve Weise-nee, who lives two houses away from Oelson. "This is a great neighborhood. There haven't been problems." A.J.

WOLFEStaff Photographer Deputies lift police tape Monday to let children walk to their homes near U.S. 441 where a body was found. Boynton's mangrove park plan questioned Mini-Blinds Verticals WINDOW SHADES Custom sizes manufactured for you to install in 24 hours at no additional charge. REPAIRS PARTS Modern Venetian Blind Corporation 417 Bunker Road, West Palm Beach intends to check for ecological damage after building the boardwalk. But architect Leo Schwartzberg said the state will not give the city a permit to cut down mature mangroves.

The boardwalk and canoe trails will follow the mosquito control ditches already on the property. Dredging the ditches another two to three feet will help flush the wetlands and encourage marine life growth, Schwartzberg said. Resident Butch Home said children will learn more seeing the mangroves from the water instead of standing on the boardwalk. The city is seeking grants to pay for half of the estimated $650,000 cost. By CHUCK McGINNESS Palm Beach Post Staff Writer BOYNTON BEACH Resident Stella Rossi doesn't mind if the city builds a boardwalk through the mangroves along the Intracoastal Waterway, but she said putting in canoe trails will destroy the wetlands and harm wildlife.

"That is a roosting area for birds, and that bothers me," Rossi said at a public hearing Monday on the proposed downtown mangrove park. "Dredging is destructive to marine life." The city plans to build the park on 12 acres just north of the Ocean Avenue bridge. Other residents questioned whether the city Since 1946 585-2561 K1 PANTHERS vs. JETS Coverage of the Florida Panthers vs. Winnipeg Jets hockey match from Miami.

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His house is the last on a dead end street and is bordered by a field. Diane Mace, who lives across "the street from Oelson, said she would see him sitting outside almost every day. The last time she "saw him was Friday, but other neighbors told deputies they saw him outside about 8:30 Sunday night. "He's lived here about 10 years," Mace said. "We worried about him.

With the hurricane (last August) he wanted to watch Lawrence Welk and not go to a shelter." Panel doesn't back juvenile justice reform By TIM PALLESEN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH -Palm Beach County's criminal justice leaders agreed Monday not to endorse legislative proposals for juvenile justice reform, but endorsed a second plan to truck an estimated 3,700 confiscated weapons to Tallahassee. Public Defender Richard Jor-andby discouraged both ideas at a Criminal Justice Commission meeting, but was successful only in blocking specific reform proposals on juvenile justice. State Attorney Barry Krischer and others are calling for tougher punishment against serious juvenile offenders at a February legislative session. The CJC agreed to hold a public forum before that session. "This should be an informational forum only, where we are not taking any position," said Jor-andby, whose office provides legal defense for indigent adults and juveniles accused of crime.

Other CJC members agreed not to get involved in the controversial debate of how tough to get 'against juveniles. Krischer wants the state's adult prisons to be responsible for the worst juvenile offenders, who are sent now to the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services for supervision. i The full CJC endorsed its ex-Secutive committee recommenda-J tion to store all weapons confiscated in Palm Beach County next year for shipment to Tallahassee before a 1995 legislative session. LIN 20B8 Stock Market Update One-minute summary at :15 and :45 past the hour, with closing report by 4:30 p.m. 2011 National ft International Business Headlines One-minute summary of top stories, updated throughout the day as news warrants.

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