BSO reports overall crime down but violent crime up 50% in Tamarac; deputies point to unpredictable interpersonal incidents

Acting Captain Christopher Palomar of the Broward County Sheriff's Office (BSO) Tamarac District briefed the city commission on public-safety trends on June 25 and said overall crime in the city is down year to date while violent crime has increased.

“Again, we continue to have a high rate of calls — over 4,000 a month, 20,000 for the year,” Palomar said, citing patrol statistics and field-initiated activity. He told the commission that in May the district recorded 81 Part 1 crimes (the most severe categories), that property crimes were down nearly 20% year to date, but that violent crime — including aggravated battery and aggravated assault — was up roughly 50% year to date.

Palomar credited field-initiated activity, license-plate-reader (LPR) hits and a range of proactive units for helping arrest suspects and push down property crime, and described community programs and recent events — such as a senior-safety summit — as ongoing prevention work. He also described recent notable arrests, including a theft ring and a swatting follow-up that involved cross-jurisdictional coordination.

Why it matters: Commissioner Patterson and other commissioners pressed for neighborhood-level targeting and technology options to address the rise in violent incidents. Palomar and BSO staff said the rise in violent crime was concentrated in interpersonal incidents that are harder to predict and that the percent increases are numerically small in absolute counts (for example, 7 cases in 2024 to 15 in 2025 for a given category), but nonetheless important.

BSO’s approach and limits: Palomar said prevention and education initiatives — including domestic-violence workshops and de-escalation efforts — are part of BSO’s response, and he noted the agency has been pursuing federal grant conversations and innovative policing strategies regionally. Palomar said the department is considering additional public outreach and educational programming and that some technologies (for example, drones or expanded camera networks) would require broader policy discussion.

Next steps and requests from commissioners: Commissioners asked staff and BSO to consider additional public education, targeted outreach in neighborhoods with higher incident rates, and grant-seeking to fund technology or programmatic measures that would be specific to Tamarac. Acting Captain Palomar said he would continue to bring operational updates and explore options with county and regional units.

Ending: The commission did not approve new deployments during the meeting; commissioners asked staff to return with options for community-targeted strategies and grant opportunities.