Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office sponsored a soccer tournament hoping to create good relations and trust in the community.

Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office sponsored a soccer tournament hoping to create good relations and trust between the Palm Beach County Hispanic Community and Ric Bradshaw’s Sheriff’s Office.

As the name suggests, its a unity tournament about bringing people together from of the diversity of our community and now providing them an outlet to play together and to learn to work together sponsored by the sheriff's office. This is a great attempt on the part of Sheriff’s Office to create good working relationships with the community. The purpose behind the tournament is the show and to create a trust between the Latino community and sheriff's office. One of things you can do is to have tournaments or events that not only does the Sheriff’s Office participates in, but also the community so they feel that they're part of the community.

Lieutenant David Moss says “In 2009 we obtain a grant from the bureau of justice administration. It’s a SMART policing initiative group. What we decided to do was trying to reduce the number of violent crimes, specifically robberies, to the migrant community here in the Lake Worth area. The grant was a two-year grant for $500,000. We’ve since had it extended because the program's been working so well. There has been a reduction in robberies and violent crimes in the migrant community.”

The problem is that these individuals or Latinos here do not feel comfortable of reporting these incidents to the sheriff's office and even when they do they don't feel that they can feel comfortable enough to stay with us throughout the whole prosecution. The net result of that is that these individuals, these suspects, end up getting away with some real violent crimes and some real serious crimes. We have this burden to somehow figure out a way to try to build that trust and that network with the Latinos so that they'll help us in those prosecutions. so that's something that's one the biggest components of this SMART grant and that’s what we are working towards even with this unity soccer tournaments.

One other thing that the people at Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s Office are doing is having a resource fair where a lot of resources or agencies offer services to the community. We give them a platform to speak to the community and tell them about the services they offer. The Blood Bank of south Florida, the Palm Beach County Library system and first family which will be providing HIV exams. So we have a lot of agencies right here that provide services to the Latino community. Many instances, these agencies can’t reach the community due to lack of not being able to meet with them. This is a good opportunity for these agencies to come here and meet them at their territory.

Sheriff Ric L. Bradshaw is a career law enforcement professional responsible for leading the largest law enforcement agency in Palm Beach County. Sheriff Bradshaw has a successful track record of forty (40) years in law enforcement. He rose through the ranks of the West Palm Beach Police Department and in 1996 was appointed Chief of Police. On January 4, 2005, Sheriff Bradshaw was sworn in as Sheriff of Palm Beach County. Sheriff Bradshaw is the thirteenth sheriff to serve as the county's chief law enforcement officer since the agency's origin in 1909. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office has six departments - Legal Affairs, Field Operations, Community Operations, Corrections, Support Services, and Administrative Services. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is comprised of 4,000 employees and approximately 5,500 Citizens on Patrol (COP). Sheriff Bradshaw has extensive knowledge and training in all aspects of law enforcement with special emphasis on Domestic Security, Field Operations and community based policing. His excellent inter-personal and communication skills demonstrate competence as a leader who "gets things done," yet maintains a balance between assertiveness and diplomacy while always remembering that his first and foremost duty is to keep citizens safe.

Sheriff Bradshaw is Chairman of the Florida Sheriffs Emergency Task Force for Region 7, a member of the Executive Board of the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force, Executive Board Chairman of Regional Domestic Security Task Force for Region 7, the Palm Beach County Chiefs of Police, Vice-Chair of States Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission, member of the Medicaid and Public Assistance Fraud Strike Force. Law Enforcement Planning Council, Police Executive Research Forum, Florida Sheriff's Association and has been designated Who's Who in Academic Excellence in America.

Sheriff Bradshaw's educational experience includes Bachelor of Science Degree-with honors in Human Resources Management and a Masters of Science in Administration with honors-with a specialization in Emergency Management, he also graduated from the Administrative Officers Course at the Southern Police Institute, University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky.

Sheriff Bradshaw is married to Dorothy and has four children. He enjoys hunting and golf.

3228 Gun Club Road
West Palm Beach, FL 33406

This release was published on openPR.