Is crime up or down in Wellington? Latest PBSO report has the details - Palm Beach Post

Crime in Wellington is a sore subject for some.

The village is branded as a “Great Hometown” that is a safe place to live for families. It’s also an equestrian wonderland in the winter.

But some have been starting to question that safety because of recent crimes like twohomicides, a sober home raid and a large uptick in burglaries from vehicles. I’ll get emails asking me about crime in certain neighborhoods and people will post on Facebook, asking if Wellington is still safe.

RELATED: Thieves are lurking in Wellington — January car burglary numbers soaring

Well, according to the numbers, it is.

The crime rate actually fell in the village in the last fiscal year, according to a presentation by District Commander Capt. Rolando Silva at the last Village Council meeting.

Last year, PBSO said its focus in Wellington was on lowering juvenile crime, traffic crashes and keeping property crimes low.

All of those things happened, but deputies were unable to hit lofty goal numbers for lowering the traffic crash rate to 2.2 crashes per 100 residents. Silva said they’ll keep trying to get that number down through enforcement and education like flashing signs telling people not to text and drive.

There was a 4 percent increase in the number of traffic stops from the previous year, but Silva said they don’t all have to result in tickets. If a driver has a minor violation and they have a good attitude, it’s likely they could get off with a warning.

Juvenile crime also dropped, but it’s still a concern. Robberies nearly doubled from nine to 17, and Silva said that was mostly a result of teen on teen crime.

One help to that will be a crackdown on minors that commit serious crimes, Silva said. They’ll be pushing for more harsh charges for juvenile crime involving firearms or other major offenses.

RELATED: Wellington’s biggest concerns: Juvenile crime and State Road 7 traffic

Wellington deputies will also be focusing on gun crime, specifically in the areas of Wellington Trace and Greenview Shores, where there has been an increase in those kinds of incidents.

Instead of just handing the person a notice of a court date for a misdemeanor, they may be hauled off to the jail for a night, Silva said.

The numbers may not be exactly representative of the current situation because the report only covers Oct. 1, 2015 through Sept. 30, 2016.

Silva acknowledged there is still work to be done on some of these issues and PBSO is ready to handle them going forward.

Though there have been some higher-profile crimes in the village recently, according to the numbers, Wellington still has it pretty good.

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