Broward County Sheriff's Office

The Broward County Sheriff's Office, commonly known by the acronym BSO, is a public safety organization responsible for law enforcement and fire rescue duties within Broward County, Florida. The Broward Sheriff's Office claims to be America's largest nationally accredited sheriff's department. The head of the organization is Interim Sheriff Al Lamberti.cite web
title = Broward Sheriff's Office - About the Broward Sheriff's Office
publisher = Broward County Sheriff's Office
url =http://www.sheriff.org/about%5Fbso/
accessdate = 2006-12-18]

Composition

The Sheriff's Office is composed of 6,300 employees, including approximately 2,800 certified deputies and approximately 600 firefighters. The BSO budget is about $700 million annually.

In 2007, longtime Sheriff Ken Jenne pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges and tax evasion. Jenne was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in federal prison.

Law Enforcement

Currently BSO provides law enforcement contract services to the following municipalities in Broward County:

*Cooper City
*Dania Beach
*Deerfield Beach
*Lauderdale Lakes
*Lauderdale-by-the-Sea
*North Lauderdale
*Oakland Park
*Parkland
*Pembroke Park
*Pompano Beach
*Tamarac
*Southwest Ranches
*Weston
*West Park
*Unincorporated Central Broward County

Communications Division

The Communications Division of Broward Sheriff's Office is responsible for 911 call-taking, dispatch, and teletype services for all Broward Sheriff's Office Districts. In addition, BSO also provides these services for several municipal police departments including, Town of Davie, Village of Sea Ranch Lakes, City of Lauderhill, City of Hallandale Beach, and Town of Lighthouse Point. In addition, BSO communications employees staff the dispatch center of Fort Lauderdale Police Department, however they operate off of separate radio channels and do not mix between BSO Law Enforcement Dispatch, and Fort Lauderdale Police Dispatch.

The Communications Division also provides dispatch services for the Broward Sheriff's Office Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services, as well as for several municipal fire departments. Davie Fire-Rescue, Oakland Park Fire-Rescue, Lighthouse Point Fire-Rescue, Lauderhill Fire-Rescue, North Lauderdale Fire-Rescue, Southwest Ranches Fire-Rescue, Tamarac Fire-Rescue, and Hallandale Beach Fire-Rescue are all dispatched by BSO Communications and operate on dispatch 2F North, 4F South, or 5F West respectively. Prior to 1999 BSO also dispatched Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue on 3F Central, however on November 21, 1999 Fort Lauderdale took over their own dispatch operations.

The last task that the Communications Division is responsible for is the Broward County Medcom system. Rescue units transporting to the various hospitals in Broward County must communicate through Broward County Medcom. Medcom's task is to patch the communications of the rescue units on the county's 800 MHz trunked radio system, to the 400 MHz radio system used by area hospitals. Rescue units call medcom, and medcom assigns them a channel that is then patched to the intended hospital.

Detention & Community Control

The Broward Sheriff's Office runs Broward County's five jail facilities that are responsible for holding persons awaiting trial, or serving sentences of less than one year. In addition to running the detention facilities, the Department of Community Control is responsible for running the county's probation & reintegration services for criminal offenders. The Department of Community Control also runs the county's in-custody health care, and mental health care programs.

Fire-Rescue & Emergency Services

History

In 1982 Broward County Emergency Medical Services merged with Broward County Fire Protection Division, to form what in 1991 would become Broward County Fire Rescue which was a fire-rescue agency providing Fire & EMS services to Unincorporated Broward County. During the 1990's Port Everglades Public Safety and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport fire departments joined with Broward County Fire Rescue.

In October 2003, control of Broward County Fire Rescue was transferred to the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Ken Jenne from the Broward County Board of County Commissioners. The name of the organization was then changed to the Broward Sheriff’s Office Department of Fire Rescue & Emergency Services.

Prior to being taken over by BSO, Broward County Fire Rescue was being considered for elimination, since at the time the majority of their fire stations were serving unincorporated areas of Broward County. All unincorporated areas of Broward County must be annexed by the year 2010 due to legislation, so the cities that annexed the unincorporated areas would then be responsible for providing fire-rescue services to these areas. However, today BSO DFRE has become a largely contracted fire-service agency with 8 of their 15 fire stations being located in contracted municipalities. Two of their stations are currently serving the remaining unincorporated areas in Broward County, and are slated for closure once all annexations take place.

Fire Prevention & Education

In addition to providing fire suppression & EMS services, the Fire Marshal's Office provides fire inspection services to all areas served by the department. The Fire Marshal's office conducts origin & cause investigations of all fires, and routinely relies on the assistance of the Florida State Fire Marshal's Office, and BSO Department of Law Enforcement for assistance with incendiary fires and arson cases. The Fire Marshal's Office also conducts public education for the county as well operating the countywide juvenile firesetters program.

Operations

In addition to providing contracted fire-rescue services to municipalities, BSO DFRE provides regional services that are available to all fire departments in Broward County. BSO has a full-time Hazardous Materials Team, a full-time Technical Rescue Team, and full-time Air Rescue helicopter used for medical transports to local trauma centers and hospitals. These resources respond countywide, and are used by several cities under automatic aid agreements.

Currently BSO Department of Fire-Rescue & Emergency Services has fifteen full-time stations inservice throughout the county, and follows the Broward County Uniform Station Numbering system.

ee also

*List of law enforcement agencies in Florida
*List of U.S. state and local law enforcement agencies
*Sheriff (Florida)

References

External links

* [http://www.sheriff.org/ The BSO Official Website]
* [http://www.sheriff.org/about%5Fbso/ BSO - About the Sheriff's Office]
* [http://www.bcfire.com Broward County Professional Firefighters & Paramedics Local 4321]
* [http://bcpba.org Broward County Police Benevolent Association]