Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Fired For Diversity Hiring

Miami FL

09 March, 2022

2:00 PM

Description

A Miami Times Staff Report, the Miami Times Mar 8, 2022 Fort Lauderdale's now former police chief, Larry Scirotto, was fired last Thursday after only about six months on the job, following an investigation into several discrimination complaints. The complaints centered on allegations that Scirotto made hiring and promotion decisions with an improper minority-first approach. Scirotto, a former assistant chief in Pittsburgh, was the first openly gay chief hired in Fort Lauderdale and also identifies as mixed-raced. An investigation into the bias complaints concluded that Scirotto was unfairly focused on minority candidates for jobs and noted that he once said a conference room wall of photos was "too white" and said, "I'm gonna change that." The report quoted Scirotto as saying he intended to "consider diversity at every opportunity." "Overall, there is a very divisive atmosphere within the department based on the perception the chief is intentionally using race, gender and sexual orientation as attributes necessary for promotions," the investigative report concluded. "While the goal to diversify is an important and laudable goal it must be accomplished in a legally permissible manner." In an interview with WSVN Friday, Scirotto defended his actions. "Those minority groups are now being treated as if they were less than deserving, and that's not the case and it never was," he said. Scirotto indicated the candidates he chose to promote were all deserving. "The promotions that I made are of the minority candidates … because they were exceptional candidates and they excelled in every level of the organization," he said. "They deserved to be promoted and, by the way, they happened to be minority. It wasn't because they were minority." Scirotto also told WSVN the line in the report about his comments regarding a wall of photos were taken out of context. "The bottom row [of pictures], it was consisting of a majority of white men and a white woman, and the statement was, 'How do I convince our community that we are a diverse community when this is what they will see, and we speak about diversity and inclusion?'" he said. Another time, when considering a promotion, the investigation found that Scirotto said "This is between Cecil and Eddie … Which one is Blacker?" Scirotto denied ever saying that. The former chief was also accused of working as a college basketball referee while being on the clock as chief and getting paid for it. Assistant Chief Luis Alvarez was named acting police chief, over a department comprised of 530 officers and 179 civilian employees. 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.