Palm Beach County sheriff's office cover-up of investigation won't help responding to calls

It's a label no respectable law enforcement agency should ever want — Keystone Kops. Unfortunately, it seems the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is trying its best to make that description fit, in the way it botched a missing woman's case two years ago and is disguising its ongoing cover-up as a still "open" internal investigation.

On July 1, 2022, a therapist entered the home of Tzvi Allswang, to conduct a routine visit. For 15 hours, she was held hostage, raped and tortured. For six of those hours, deputies ignored pleas from the therapist's employer and family to enter the house, failed to run a routine check that would have revealed Allswang's criminal history and even debated if the screams they heard were cries for help or cries of passion.

Therapists face occupational hazard: Health and social workers are victims of 75% of workplace violence, according to OSHA

When deputies did enter the house, they found Allswang holding a knife against his victim's throat. At that point, a deputy shot Allswang, ending the standoff but not the obvious questions that arose from the horribly delayed response.

“We did not have exigent circumstances to make entry into the home,” a deputy wrote about the incident in a PBSO report. “I advised (the victim’s) boss to have a deputy return later in the morning if (the victim) is not heard from.”

While the sheriff's office can't change a travesty of two years ago, it can certainly learn from its mistakes. But that won't happen if the so-called "open" internal investigation never reaches a conclusion.

It shouldn't take almost two years to document and examine procedures to determine what worked and what didn't. A thorough assessment would benefit both the public and the deputies responding to calls. After almost two years, the internal investigation's "open" status seems nothing short of an administrative cover-up.

The antics of the fictional incompetent Keystone Kops were funny back in 1912, when comedic sketches were introduced to the public. The same can't be said for PBSO's real-life response breakdown in 2022.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: PBSO must close Tzvi Allswang investigation to improve call responses