The City will be collecting toys to give to underprivileged children living in Port Richey this holiday season. New and unwrapped toys of all kinds can be donated. Toy collection boxes are located in the main lobby of City Hall.

For several months now, the Port Richey Police Department, Pasco Sheriff’s Department and the New Port Richey Police Department have been dealing with a series of water meter and back flow preventer thefts.  All of these thefts were occurring at businesses in our community with several businesses actually victimized not just once, but twice.  This incurred several thousands of dollars of loss for our local business owner’s.  The Port Richey Police department quietly put together a task force with our surrounding agencies.  Several of the Port Richey Police Officers and support staff gave up their off duty time to work extra patrols designed to apprehend the subjects guilty of these thefts.  The Port Richey Police Department came up with an innovative and progressive idea to apprehend these subjects by utilizing the latest technology.  Working with the City of Port Richey’s IT Department and the Utilities Department, several GPS tracking devices were purchased and installed in meters throughout the City, as well as in the hardest hit areas of the Pasco Sheriff’s Department.  These devices were being monitored in real time by the Port Richey Police Departments Communications Center twenty four hours a day.  On November 7, 2011, one of these devices was stolen and was on the move and within seconds several units from the Port Richey Police department were dispatched and responded to the location of the vehicle.  The vehicle was tracked for approximately 10 minutes before it was located and stopped in the parking lot of the Burger King located at Stone Road and US Highway 19.  Subsequent to arrest the vehicle was searched and the water meter that had been stolen for a second time from a local business was located in the back seat of the vehicle.  A subject, Michael Flanagan was arrested for the theft.  After an interview conducted jointly between the Port Richey Police Department and the Pasco Sheriff’s department, Mr. Flanagan admitted to the thefts that had occurred both in the City’s jurisdiction as well as in the Pasco Sheriff’s jurisdiction.  This resulted in a total of twenty six felony grand theft cases being filed against Mr. Flanagan.  Eighteen of those cases occurred in the City of Port Richey.  The GPS trackers will remain hidden within the community to deter any additional thefts of our water meters.  The men and women of the Port Richey Police Department, IT Department and Utilities Department worked tirelessly on this issue and should be commended for their effort to keep local businesses in the community as well as the surrounding areas safe from this type of repeated crime.