Boca Raton Police Chief Jared Phelps observes the swearing-in ceremony in his honor on July 30. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Mary Hladky
As he settles into his role as Boca Raton’s police chief, Jared Phelps is enthusiastic about his new position.
“This is a dream job,” he told residents at an Aug. 5 community meeting.
Asked by City Manager Mark Sohaney at another community meeting on Aug. 19 what impresses him about the city, Phelps said it is community commitment.
“We have a plethora of individuals who are committed to making sure the quality of life stays as high as we can have it,” he said.
Sworn in as police chief on July 30 after the city conducted a nationwide search, Phelps is still learning about the department and its culture. So he is not yet ready to announce any departmental changes.
“I don’t believe in coming in and making sweeping changes right off the bat,” he told The Coastal Star at the Aug. 19 community meeting. “I believe in making educated changes, incremental changes because these are sustainable and not just turning the cart upside down and saying, ‘yeah, we are doing this.’
“I’ve got to have buy-in from everybody, and they need to understand why we are doing this so that they see the value.”
Phelps is a 31-year law enforcement veteran who previously served as police chief for Jacksonville, North Carolina, and before that rose through the ranks to become deputy chief of the Prince William County Police Department in Virginia.
The father of two adult children learned about policing early on. His mother was a dispatcher with the Prince William County department in 1976 and became an officer two years later. She later became an officer and sergeant for Northern Virginia Community College.
“She instilled in me … that it is about doing things the right way, treating people with dignity and respect,” Phelps told residents on Aug. 19. “To me, that is what law enforcement is all about.”
Phelps arrives at a possible time of change for the department.
Voters will decide in March whether the city will build a new police complex to replace the aging building on the city’s downtown campus that the department outgrew years ago.
Last March, voters defeated a proposal to pay for a new complex on 16.4 city-owned acres immediately east of the Spanish River Library.
Since then, city officials have scaled back the cost and size of the project, and hope voters will now look favorably on it.
Phelps said he heard no negative comments from residents attending the two community sessions about building a new facility.
“I see a lot of heads shaking ‘yes’ when we talk about this,” he said.
A new facility is badly needed, he said, and he sees part of his job as helping educate voters on why that is the case and how the cost has been reduced.
“Ultimately, it’s going to be the voters’ call,” he said. “All I can do is educate. That’s what I am trying to do. Educate our community on what our need is so that they can make an informed choice on what they want.”
His preference is to build the main facilities at Spanish River as well as a downtown substation.
The Spanish River location is large enough to allow for future expansion as the city grows. Yet many residents and business owners also favor a downtown presence, he said.
Phelps supports Sohaney’s recently unveiled initiatives to help the homeless while also improving community safety.
They include adding four police officers in the downtown, hiring a community resource coordinator and creating a Quality of Life Working Group.
Homeless persons “have a right to be in a park,” he told residents. “They don’t have a right to commit crimes.”
But arrest isn’t always the right approach, he said. Making resources available to help them can decrease what could otherwise be repeated problems.
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