Belleair Safest Community in Pinellas County

Last updated on February 25, 2023

Belleair Safest Community Around

Belleair residents want to feel secure, and residents can rest easy knowing Belleair is the safest community in Pinellas County.. Belleair is the second safest in our three surrounding counties. That includes Hillsborough Pasco and Manatee Counties, only bested by Longboat Key.

However, even the safest town is occasionally touched by crime.

Last Thursday afternoon, Belleair Police Officer Allison Daniels was already on a traffic complaint at Cypress Avenue and Mehlenbacher Road. When she was dispatched to a burglary in progress call on Eastwood Lane in Belleair.

As Officer Daniels drove west on Mehlenbacher Road, a car ran a stop sign. Crashinginto Officer Daniels’ cruiser. As luck would have it and unknown to Officer Allison Daniels at the time, a crime spree by five juveniles suddenly and abruptly ended.

It turns out the Kia that ran the stop sign and crashed into Officer Daniels’ cruiser—driven by a 17-year-old male, stolen in Kissimmee, and was the vehicle involved in the three burglaries.

The Kia had four other juvenile passengers. Who allegedly burglarized homes on Eastwood Lane, the 400 block of Althea Road, and the 600 block of Pineland Avenue, all in Belleair.

Belleair Police Officer Allison Daniels

Sadly, Officer Daniels, a 17-year veteran of the force, suffered injuries to her upper body. Despite her injuries, she bravely provided emergency treatment to two juvenile suspects. Trapped in a Kia after crashing into Officer Daniel’s police cruiser.

While three suspects fled the scene, two got arrested by Pinellas County Sheriff’s K-9 unit. All four suspects were transported to nearby hospitals.

Belleair police are withholding the names of the juveniles. A fifth suspect was arrested and jailed later.

Officer Daniels went to Largo Medical Center-Indian Rocks, where she got treated and released that night. Belleair released a statement saying, “the officer faces a lengthy recovery process.”

Our thanks and get-well wishes for a well-done job go out to Officer Allison Daniels.

We’d also like to thank the Town of Belleair, and Public Relations Coordinator, Amanda Oreskovich for her well-timed tweets and her recent posts and alerts. An essential objective of Belleair’s strategic plan was to identify the need for more acceptable interactions and strategies to communicate with Belleair residents.

It’s not enough to only notify us about the employee of the month or town activities with limited resident participation. But it is updating residents on issues that impact us communally and financially—having vital and obvious importance for all Belleair residents.

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