NOV 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 11

ACEVEDO: From high

ACEVEDO: From high praise to the hot seat: How Miami's police chief saga became political theater The ongoing conflict has captivated the public and escalated very quickly. EDITOR: The following Editorial was published before Acevedo was fired as Miami’s Police Chief. Rivero provides another prospective on the subject as a reporter from WLRN in Miami and a former investigative reporter for the television series “The Naked Truth.” The ongoing conflict has captivated the public and escalated very quickly. What led up to it and where does it go from here? The city of Miami government has been gripped by a circular firing squad of explicit accusations of misconduct, possible corruption, and incompetence. On one side of the squad are three sitting Cuban American city commissioners. On the other, a Cuban American police chief and, nominally, the Cuban American mayor and city manager who helped bring him to the city. Residents of the city are in the middle of the melee, shielding their eyes from the carnage and ducking for cover to avoid the crossfire. No one can say with certainty what the total damages will be once the attacks come to a halt. The unfolding situation has high stakes for the city, bringing national media attention and calling the viability and stability of the city government into question. And now, the escalating battle has reached new heights: A related federal lawsuit against the city has been filed by businesses in Little Havana, alleging that the city “weaponized the very tools of government” in order to shut them down. The police chief has called on the Department of Justice to investigate the actions of sitting members of the city commission, and the FBI has acknowledged it is aware of the situation. That same police chief has also faced public hearings entirely aimed at discrediting his actions in both the recent past, up to decades ago. The hearings are intended to push him out of office. All of this happened within a very short time period — but how did it happen? And how did we get here? The drama began with the arrival of police chief Art Acevedo in March. Acevedo was the police chief in Austin, Texas for nine years, and most recently was the top cop in Houston for nearly five years. But the political intrigue started with questions about how Cuban-born Acevedo was recruited to Miami. “Obviously, the mayor has a relationship with the current mayor in Houston,” said city manager Art Noriega. “He connected us. The mayor spoke to him, I spoke to him. And he had nothing but positive things to say about the chief.” The city manager technically made the hire, but the chief was really recruited by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. “The chief is someone who was recruited and hired because of his record. And his record is one where he was chosen by all the chiefs in the United States, all the big city chiefs, as their leader,” Suarez told WLRN in mid-September. He pointed to the fact that Acevedo was elected by police chiefs across the country to serve as the current president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a national group of police chiefs. “So, I mean, you’re getting the chief of chiefs,” said Suarez. City of Miami’s incoming police chief Art Acevedo speaks during a press conference at Miami City Hall in Coconut Grove, Florida on Monday, March 15, 2021. The controversy was that a formal interview process was underway in the Miami Police Department, a process that could have promoted someone from within. Three city commissioners — Joe Carollo, Alex Diaz De La Portilla and Manolo Reyes, the three Cuban Americans on the commission — took issue with the mayor and city manager sidestepping the process. The hire of Acevedo came as unexpected Sunday night news to many in the city government. “You had people from the area who were interested, applied for the position, went through the interviews, and it comes across as — they were not taken seriously,” explained Alexis Piquero, a criminologist and chair of the University of Miami’s department of sociology and arts & sciences. “Whether that’s true or not, those are the optics.” Noriega has said an outside hire was needed in order to institute needed reforms to the department. In response to the surprise hire, the city commission passed a resolution in July that called for a ballot referendum asking city of Miami voters to give the elected commission more oversight of the hiring process for both the chief of the police and the chief of the fire department positions. Mayor Suarez vetoed that resolution, saying it would put top candidates from other cities in a precarious position. In his veto message Suarez wrote: “What would happen with his/her current employer if everyone knows that he/she is applying for a new job, and what would happen if he/she fails to land the new job?” “I don’t know what he’s afraid of,” Commissioner Reyes told the Miami Herald at the time. “Let’s have a very transparent process where we will be able to recruit the best candidates within our department and in the U.S.” The question will not be on the November ballot, but it is not dead. Depending on the action of commissioners, it could still end up on the ballot in 2022. The Shake Up The actions of Chief Acevedo have also rattled the city police department. The chief came on board as a self-described reformer, with the stated goal of issuing sweeping changes to the internal culture of the department. Just after coming on, Acevedo spoke with WLRN and shared that he immediately intended to fire an estimated ten officers. “I’ve now put internal affairs as of yesterday directly reporting to me as the chief of police,” Acevedo said in April. “We have cases that are languishing there that we want to fire people but apparently the cases are there for upwards to a year or longer, and these people, these officers are on the payroll.” Chief Acevedo was brought here to institute reform and he deserves the opportunity to do so. Reform isn’t pretty to police officers because it goes against the blue wall of silence and some of the friends of the family will have to be held accountable. Miami Police Major Dana Carr During his short tenure so far, the police chief has repeatedly found himself in hot water over his outspoken demeanor and public persona. He angered the police union and some rank-andfile officers after saying officers might be fired if they don’t get vaccines for COVID-19, and was forced to issue a self-reprimand after being caught on camera cursing at a member of the Proud Boys. The Miami Police Department was under sweeping federal oversight from 2016 through early 2021, due to a string of police shooting incidents dating back to 2010 and 2011. All of the people shot and killed by the police during that eight-month stretch were black and several were unarmed, according to a findings report issued by the Department of Justice in 2013. Acevedo came on board after the federal oversight was lifted, but said cultural reforms within the department were still needed. “It’s a balance and I’m fine with someone else taking over and conducting an independent investigation, but it has to be timely, and if it’s not timely I’m going to act in those instances when I believe people need to be fired,” said Acevedo. Within months the chief relieved the city’s sergeant-atarms, Luis Camacho, of duty, citing an ongoing internal affairs investigation. He demoted four majors without explanation, and brought in an old colleague from Houston, Heather Morris, to serve as a deputy police chief. The chief fired a high-ranking police couple for not properly reporting a minor car accident. The shakeup ruffled feathers in the department, and in an August meeting when he was addressing staff, Chief Acevedo made a 14 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 15