Miami Selects Police Chief Outside Of Public Eye

Miami FL

17 March, 2021

8:45 AM

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By Erik Bojnansky, Miami Times Contributor Mar 16, 2021 More than 70 people applied for the Miami police chief job. Eight finalists for the post, two of whom are Black Americans, were even publicly interviewed for the job in a televised meeting at city hall by a selection committee. Miami's city manager, Art Noriega, opted to hire someone who had never even applied for the job. In a Monday morning news conference, Noriega announced that Art Acevedo, Houston's high profile police chief, will be the one taking on that role in Miami. "Chief Acevedo, I am very excited to work with you as we lead the Miami Police Department forward to tackle the public safety challenges that our city faces, to take our part in our department's even greater levels of excellence," Noriega said during the conference. "Your dynamic personality and enthusiasm will be infectious. Welcome to the city of Miami, the best city in the world." In a free-flowing address, Acevedo – who was Houston's police chief for more than four years and Austin's police chief for more than nine – vowed to enact community policing that's respectful to all, especially the poor and people of color, and to rid the Miami PD of bad and undisciplined cops. Art Acevedo, then Houston's chief of police, marching with students from Santa Fe High School in the days following the city's deadly mass shooting on May 18, 2018./AP Photo/David J. Phillips "I can tell you that you might as well resign, because we will not tolerate mediocrity and I will not apologize for getting rid of mediocrity, because when you allow mediocrity to fester, the community sees it. They know it. And it spreads like a cancer," Acevedo said. His pointed statement comes not only because of the attention police brutality is garnering nationwide after the death of George Floyd, but because the Miami Police Department has been under federal oversight prompted by a scathing review of 33 Miami police shootings between 2008 and 2011. After the killing of George Floyd last year by Minneapolis police, Art Acevedo said in Houston, "We will march as a department with everybody in this community. I will march until I can't stand no more."/NBC News The 2013 review by the Department of Justice determined that Miami police had violated the U.S. Constitution by engaging in "excessive use of deadly force" and that police were repeating a pattern from years earlier, despite pledges to change the department's tactics and culture. A large part of the federal review centered on seven shootings of Black men over an eight-month period between 2010-2011. At least two of the men were unarmed. Because the city fought with the DOJ for two years over reform and accountability measures, federal oversight didn't begin until 2016 and ended last month. Born in Cuba and the son of a police officer, Acevedo was Houston's first Hispanic police chief. With more than 5,000 sworn police officers, the Houston Police Department is the fourth-largest police department in the U.S. In contrast, Miami has only 1,300 police officers. Currently president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, an organization of police executives representing the largest cities in the U.S. and Canada, Acevedo is outspoken and has a reputation as a reformer who stresses the need for police to have good relationships with all segments of the community. A Republican, Acevedo spoke before the Democratic National Convention on the need to implement national police standards. He has also criticized Republican officials. When former President Donald Trump demanded that the police "dominate" protesters, Acevedo – who marched with George Floyd protesters in Houston last summer – told CNN that Trump should "keep his mouth shut." More recently, Acevedo criticized Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to end the Texas mask-wearing mandate. But Acevedo's reputation is far from perfect. As Houston's police chief, he delayed the release of body camera footage of Nicolas Chavez being killed by Houston police this past April. Acevedo likewise delayed an audit of a deadly botched drug raid in which two people were killed in 2019, according to a Houston Public Media article. Daniella Pierre, president of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP, said her organization is dismayed about the secretive way the city hired Acevedo. "We are concerned that the process was not followed, and we will be having a conversation with the city manager, so he can reveal the facts on how he arrived to this decision," Pierre told The Miami Times. Acevedo's hiring circumvented a public process that was put in place by Noriega last year when Police Chief Jorge Colina declared his intention to resign. That process included eight finalists being asked questions about policing by a Noriega-appointed selection committee. The five-hour televised session of those interviews can still be found on YouTube. Noriega said the opportunity to hire Acevedo was just too good to pass up. "[Acevedo] is a name that the mayor and I talked about early in the process," Noriega explained to The Miami Times. "We were not sure if he had any interest in it at all. As we got further along, we sort of rethought in terms of his potential candidacy and we said, 'Let's take a run at him' because of just the level of his experience." Under Miami's city charter, the mayor's powers are primarily limited to nominating the city manager to the city commission, vetoing legislation and naming a city commission chairperson. Nevertheless, during the news conference, Suarez said he was very involved in the hiring of Acevedo. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, flanked by City Manager Art Noriega and City Commissioner Jeffrey Watson, said he "intervened" to help hire Acevedo./Erik Bojnansky for The Miami Times "The first job of the mayor, manager and the commission is to keep residents safe," Suarez declared. "And our residents can sleep very, very well tonight knowing that our manager, with the help of the commission and my intervention, brought to Miami the best chief in America." By "intervention," Suarez explained that he already personally knew Acevedo, as well as the mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner. As a result, Suarez said he could connect Acevedo with Noriega. "I knew Art for four years. As this process was unfolding, [he] was the dream candidate. Art Noriega agreed with that. I connected the two of them and then [Noriega] took it from there. He did a magnificent job being a closer," Suarez said. Sgt. Stanley Jean-Poix, president of the Miami City Police Benevolent Association, which represents Black officers within the Miami PD, said he was impressed with Acevedo during his recent meeting. "He said all the right things. … he is about the community … and supports officers who do the right thing and who do their job, and he says he does not tolerate corrupt cops," recalled Jean-Poix, who accused Colina of being soft on police corruption. Lt. Ramon Carr, vice president of the MCPBA, said he is pleased that the department will be led by someone from outside of Miami PD. "A reset button needs to be pushed, and he is the perfect person to come in and push it," he said. Out of the eight finalists for the Miami police chief job, five are already high-ranking members of the department: Deputy Chief Ron Papier, who is serving as interim chief; Assistant Chief Armando Aguilar; Assistant Chief Cherise Gause; Assistant Chief Manuel Morales; and Maj. Francisco Fernandez. The three remaining applicants were from outside Florida: DeShawn Beaufort, chief inspector of the Philadelphia Police Department; Raul Pinto, deputy chief of the New York City Police Department; and Jason Lando, commander of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. Of those eight finalists, two are Black: Gause and Beaufort. Back in February, past Miami-Dade NAACP president Ruban Roberts told The Miami Times that Gause would make a fantastic police chief for Miami. Miami hasn't seen a Black police chief since 1994, after three consecutive Black chiefs beginning with the first in1985, Clarence Dickson, and followed by Perry Anderson Jr. and Calvin Ross. Noriega said all eight finalists would have made great police chiefs for the City of Miami. "There are some really, really qualified people there, but this was the difference between getting an all-star and a legend," Noriega said. "[Acevedo] is just an amazing chief, really considered one of the best in the country." Acevedo said he believed that his outside perspective will be an asset for the Miami Police Department. "I think it is a great department, but I think that sometimes you don't know things you don't know, and I want to bring perspective and show them how to do things a little better," he said. Tommy Reyes, president of the Miami chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he will reserve judgment on how the new chief will do. "He comes very highly recommended. He comes with a lot of experience, and I will formulate my own opinion probably in the next six months or so," Reyes said. What Reyes isn't too concerned with was how Acevedo was hired. After all, the charter gives the city manager full discretion on hiring a police chief. "The process was meaningless to begin with," Reyes observed. "Is it a shocker? Yes, it is a shocker that [Noriega] went outside his own made-up process. But it is not like he did anything wrong." Pierre said her organization is "looking forward to hold [Acevedo] accountable, to bring restorative justice, community policing, trust and safety [to the city]." She also said the Miami PD's 911dispatchers must be included in any community policing reforms. "When we are calling for community policing, it's not just police officers, it's also police dispatchers. That means [dispatchers] need to have the training of today so they can be able to serve the needs of both today and tomorrow," Pierre said. During Monday's news conference, city commissioners were also on hand to provide their support to Acevedo. Commissioner Jeffrey Watson said he personally liked a media interview Acevedo did last week, in which the police chief was "pretty much telling the Texas governor that he was a joke." City Commissioner Jeffrey Watson welcomed Miami's new police chief, Art Acevedo./Erik Bojnansky for The Miami Times "Welcome to town, it is always great when the good people come back home," Watson said to Acevedo, who briefly lived in Miami. "Here we have a lot of challenges. I understand that if there is anyone who is up to those challenges [it's you]. I look forward to working with you and I am hoping that a year from now you won't be thinking that it wasn't a great thing to come back home." Acevedo won't immediately be moving to Miami, though. "He is going to start in four to eight weeks, depending on how he finalizes things in Houston," Suarez said. "We obviously pushed him to start earlier, but he pushed back out of respect for [Houston's] mayor." In the meantime, Deputy Chief Papier will continue to lead the department as interim police chief. Colina retired on Feb. 26. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.