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 head of the organization is Sheriff Al Lamberti.[1]
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The Sheriff's Office is composed of 6,300 employees, including approximately 3,190 certified deputies and approximately 600 firefighters.[1] 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.[2]
In October 2007, Florida Governor Charlie Crist appointed Al Lamberti permanent Sheriff of Broward County.[3] He was re-elected to the post in November of 2008.
Currently BSO provides law enforcement contract services to the following municipalities in Broward County:
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.
In late 2011 the channel denomination changed becoming 2BCF, 4BCF and 5BCF , having the first channel become the main dispatch (2BCF-DISP,4BCF-DISP and 5BCF-DISP) , the second channel become information (2BCF-INFO, 4BCF-INFO and 5BCF-INFO), the third channel become car-to-car for units to communicate over the air (2BCF-CC, 4BCF-CC and 5BCF-CC) and the fourth , fifth and sixth channels become TAC1, TAC2 and TAC3 respectively .
The Broward Sheriff's Office runs Broward County's four 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.
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 1990s 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 15 of their 21 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.
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.
In addition to providing contracted fire-rescue services to municipalities, BSO Fire Rescue 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 has 22 full-time stations inservice throughout the county, and follows the Broward County Uniform Station Numbering system.
| Station Number | Area Served | Units | Specialty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dania Beach | Quint 1, Rescue 1 | |
| 4 | Deerfield Beach | Engine 4, Rescue 4, Battalion 4 | |
| 6 | Port Everglades | Engine 6, Engine 206, Rescue 6, Chem 6, Battalion 6, Fireboat 6(cross staffed), Attack 6(cross staffed), Foam 6(cross staffed) | Seaport |
| 10 | Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport | Engine 10, Rescue 10, Truck 210, Truck 310, Truck 610(spare, not staffed), Truck 710, Battalion 10, Marine 10(cross staffed), Utility 10(cross staffed) | ARFF |
| 14 | Unincorporated Central Broward | Engine 14, Rescue 14 | |
| 17 | Logistics and HAZMAT | Haz-Mat 23, Battalion 32, Support 23 (MCI vehicle, cross staffed), Support 223(Decontamination vehicle, cross staffed), Support 323 (Rad. Survey vehicle, cross staffed) | Hazardous Materials Team |
| 23 | Unincorporated Fort Lauderdale (Currently housed at Davie Station 104) | Engine 23 | |
| 27 | Pembroke Park / West Park | Engine 27, Rescue 27, Rescue 227 | |
| 28 | Cooper City | Engine 28, Quint 28, Rescue 28 | |
| 32 | Airport/Seaport Regional (Stationed in Fort Lauderdale, FL) | TRT 32 (cross staffed), Support 32, Rescue 32, Tower Ladder 32 | Technical Rescue Team |
| 36 Closed , services assumed by Pembroke Pines F.R. as of 09/01/2011 | Southwest Ranches | Tanker 36, Rescue 36 | |
| 37 | Lauderdale Lakes | Engine 37, Quint 37, Rescue 37, Rescue 237, Battalion 37 | |
| 51 | Deerfield Beach | Rescue 51 | |
| 55 | Weston | Engine 55, Rescue 55, Brush 55(cross staffed), Battalion 55 | |
| 66 | Deerfield Beach | Engine 66, Rescue 66, Battalion 66 | |
| 67 | Weston | Engine 67, Rescue 67, Brush67(cross staffed), Rescue 21 | |
| 75 | Deerfield Beach | Engine 75, Rescue 75 | |
| 81 | Weston | Engine 81, Tower Ladder 81, Rescue 81 | |
| 85 | Countywide (Stationed at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport) | Air Rescue 85 | Air Rescue |
| 93 | Dania Beach (Housed at station 17 in Dania Beach) | Quint 93, Rescue 93 | |
| 102 | Deerfield Beach | Engine 102, Rescue 102, Squad 102, Tower Ladder 102 | |
| 106 | I-75/Alligator Alley & the Florida Everglades | Engine 106, Rescue 106, Brush 106(cross staffed)(cross staffed), Marine 106, Airboat 106 (cross staffed) | |
| 111 | Deerfield Beach | Rescue 111 |
Broward County Sheriff's Office works in partnership with Women in Distress (WID) to prevent domestic violence. [4] WID is a nationally accredited, state-certified, full service domestic violence center in Broward County. Its mission is to provide victims of domestic violence with safe shelter, crisis intervention and resources, and to educate the community in order to Stop Abuse For Everyone (SAFE) through intervention, education and advocacy. [5]
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