For the third time, a city in Broward County is considering severing ties with the Broward Sheriff’s Office. It’s a path fraught with financial and political unknowns, but it’s a risk worth taking.
First it was small-town Pembroke Park. Then the much larger Deerfield Beach decided in January that BSO’s escalating costs and repeated ugly clashes with Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony simply weren’t worth it anymore.
Now, it’s Pompano’s turn. Pompano Beach, the largest of the three, has embarked on a similar journey, once again forcing Tony on the defensive and raising new questions about his agency.
The city accepted a 155-page consultant’s study Tuesday that frames the costs, benefits and potential drawbacks of creating a standalone police force along with an existing city-run fire-rescue system.
Amid many what-ifs, the study estimates the first-year operating cost of a startup police force at $100 million, much higher than BSO’s current cost of $75 million. For an owner of a median value home of $322,000, the first-year tax increase would be $408, the study said.
Public outrage at BSO
But before the consultant said a word, an outpouring of public anger and frustration made it obvious that the sheriff’s future in Pompano Beach could be in serious jeopardy.
Shocked residents and relatives of Jeremyah Taylor, some of them crying, voiced outrage to the mayor and commissioners over the apparent beating of the 22-year-old man by four BSO deputies on Jan. 13. The incident, recorded on a cell phone and reported widely by TV news, shows deputies tackling Taylor, one of them kicking him repeatedly near his head as he lay on the ground in a parking lot.
“He was down. He wasn’t standing. He was not fighting. The kicks continued … kick after kick after kick,” Taylor’s mother, Tamara Taylor, told commissioners. When a woman watching at a distance verbally protested, she said, a deputy appeared to draw his gun on her.
Mrs. Taylor and others wore T-shirts showing an image of the beating and the words: “There is no excuse for police abuse.” The city attorney said Pompano has received a written notice of intent to sue the city on Taylor’s behalf.
The sheriff was at Tuesday’s commission meeting, where he asked to speak about the consultant study. Addressing the Taylor family and residents, he said the incident is being investigated and that he has fired “over 200 plus” employees for misconduct in seven years as sheriff.
Promising ‘true justice’
“Apparently the Taylor family, without a shadow of a doubt, has suffered,” Tony said. He promised “true justice for everyone, regardless of race,” but added: “It has to be done right.”
“I have never shied away from the accountability that I have, that I owe everybody in this room,” Tony said.
In recent days, the sheriff has flooded Pompano Beach mailboxes with glossy green postcards that promote the sheriff’s office and its “comprehensive public safety and exceptional value across Broward County.”
It has all the earmarks of a marketing campaign, with the evident intent of persuading Pompano Beach residents to support keeping BSO in charge after 27 years. Tony sent a flurry of similar mailings, all in vain, to Deerfield Beach residents.
What’s not clear is how much the mailings cost taxpayers. The flyers do not carry a disclaimer as required for political mail, and the agency has not yet responded to questions about how they were funded.
Whether the mailings were at public expense or not, Tony owes the public an explanation. County commissioners, who approve his annual budget, should demand answers.
Telling images
Tony’s slick advertising pitch in Pompano cannot possibly compete with the gritty video of a BSO-clad deputy stomping on a suspect as he lay prone on concrete.
One is a sales job. The other is horrifyingly real.
What happened in that parking lot is all the more reason why Pompano Beach residents should take an interest in the future of their public safety.
Residents have two upcoming opportunities to speak out and ask questions about the future of law enforcement. The first workshop is at 6 p.m. Thursday at E. Pat Larkins Community Center, 520 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
After a second forum on March 12 and extensive discussion by commissioners, Mayor Rex Hardin told the Editorial Board, the city will chart its future, probably within the next couple of months.
The options could also include renegotiating the existing BSO contract or partnering with another city, with neighboring Deerfield Beach the most obvious possibility.
“We need to make decisions,” Hardin said.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/02/25/a-pivotal-time-for-public-safety-in-pompano-editorial/
