Those officers, according to several residents, are most often seen checking for parking and beach badges, running speed traps and patrolling the streets. John Sgro, while patrolling on a recent Friday night. He occasionally flashed his car's spotlight on the closed buildings of the old Admiral Farragut Academy, catching the silhouette of a large raccoon, and nothing more. As for solving major reported crimes, Pine Beach ranked 11th best among the 32 towns with police departments in Ocean County in 1996, according to an Asbury Park Press analysis of FBI crime data. Pine Beach ranked as the eighth safest town.
Major crimes are murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and theft.
There has not been a murder in the borough since 1982. No rapes have been reported since at least 1981 and the last robbery of record occurred in 1993. In 1996, the latest year for which data is available, the borough had reports of 15 burglaries and 35 thefts. When compared with the other 215 suburban towns in the state, Pine Beach ranked just above the middle, at 90. Police here have had relatively few crimes to investigate over the years.