Less than six weeks after the city’s police chief was suspended, the Belle Glade City Commission on Monday effectively abolished the entire department, approving a contract under which the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office will take over law enforcement duties in the rural community of 15,000.

Sheriff’s deputies will begin patrolling the city on the southeast shore of Lake Okeechobee on Wednesday morning.

For an annual fee of $3.4 million, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said he would assign a captain and 29 deputies to patrol Belle Glade, a racially divided city that often is beset by property crimes, drug dealing and assaults.

“This is going to be a significant enhancement for citizens,” Bradshaw said. “They’ll get a better quality of officers and investigations and overall they’ll get better quality of life at the end of the day.”

City Commissioner Shelly Miller, in the majority in Monday’s 3-1 vote, commented, “I am absolutely thrilled that this has happened.”

Miller said the savings to the cash-strapped city could be as much as $600,000 a year, and she predicted that residents would welcome the sheriff’s deputies.

“The community will be accepting of this when they realize the level of service they have been receiving is not what they are deserving,” said Miller, adding that she helped initiate the move to bring in the Sheriff’s Office after her home was burglarized.

Still, the whirlwind drive to do away with the local Police Department has raised tensions in Belle Glade, a predominantly black community, where many have voiced support for suspended Chief Albert Dowdell. Two years ago, he became the first African-American to hold the post.

Dowdell was relieved of duties June 1 after a grand jury report criticized his handling of a shooting and questioned his truthfulness. The report also recommended the city consider handing police duties to the Sheriff’s Office.

Commissioner Mary Kendall, who is black, cast the lone vote against the contract. “I feel that the contract was shoved down our citizens’ throats,” she said. Commissioner Gwendolyn Asia-Williams, who also is black, was out of the country.

Kendall also objected to a decision by the commission majority to ban comments from the audience at Monday’s meeting. Of the 100 people who showed up for the morning special session, several had indicated a desire to speak on the issue. “It was just a travesty of justice,” said Kendall.

Miller said the commission recently held two public hearings during which the community was invited to speak. “It’s the same group of eight to 12 people who have nothing but negative to say,” she said of those who wanted to be heard Monday.

Joining Miller in approving the contract were Mayor Ray Torres Sanchez and Vice Mayor Don Garrett.

The Sheriff’s Office already handles law enforcement in nearby Pahokee and South Bay and is negotiating to take over in Royal Palm Beach. But Bradshaw said he did not seek to take over policing in Belle Glade until city officials approached him.

Dowdell said Monday he would apply for a job with the Sheriff’s Office.

“I don’t know what will happen in the future,” said Dowdell, 51, whose pre-termination hearing was postponed until Aug. 14. “I’m in limbo.”

The sheriff said all 29 Belle Glade officers and supervisors would be invited to apply for positions with his department, with the exception of Dowdell and public safety director Ken Holley. Before coming to work in Belle Glade, Holley had retired from the Glades County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies immediately will begin a community-policing program in addition to responding to regular calls for help, according to Bradshaw. He added that officers would be alert to everything from shootings to home break-ins to illegal trucks parking on streets.

Along with an expected cost savings, the city also gets with the Sheriff’s Office several ancillary services, including the use of police dogs, a helicopter and crime lab technicians.

The city will turn over to the Sheriff’s Office its fleet of cars, many of which are in poor condition.

The deputies will work out of the sheriff’s substation outside the city for the time being, but Bradshaw said he wanted to set up permanent headquarters close to the city’s center.

Staff Writer Leon Fooksman contributed to this report.

Mike Clary can be reached at or 561-243-6629.