It takes a team to tackle crime. In South Florida, law enforcement agencies have banded together to stop traveling criminals in their tracks.
Five local sheriff’s offices and several police departments have joined a South Florida Task Force designed to prevent burglaries.
It was created about a year ago, according to Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, and is proving to be useful.
From Miami-Dade to St. Lucie counties, law enforcement officers know many people committing crimes travel up the interstate or turnpike to target homes and cars.
“For several years now, but really in the last year or so, we have been plagued by career criminals coming out from Dade or Broward county into Martin County,” said Martin County Sheriff William Snyder.
The task force helps all of the jurisdictions work together more effectively.
“We train mutually, We have a mutual radio,” Snyder said.
It opens up a direct line of communication if one county knows a threat is moving toward the other, and gives each law enforcement officer the authority to follow a criminal through other jurisdictions, “Which makes it really difficult for those criminals to get out from our grasp,” Snyder said. "In the old days, we’d have to hand off to the next county and then we would break off.”
Snyder says the task force has helped lead to several arrests in Martin County, including the arrest of three people from Broward County accused of burglarizing Martin County parks.
The trio was under surveillance for car burglaries in several counties. Detectives with the South Florida Task Force followed them from Fort Lauderdale to Martin County Saturday.
“We were on these traveling burglars within minutes of them hitting Martin County,” Snyder said.
He credits this strong partnership and extra set of eyes on his southern border.
“Rick Bradshaw and his surveillance team are the best by far that we’ve ever seen.”