My favorite local blogger, Random Pixels, has written extensively about police corruption, especially in Opa-locka.  Today, he wrote about the crazy stuff happening in the City of Miami Gardens, in which the police have been caught on video harassing employees and customers of a Quickstop.  In his column, Miami Gardens Police Chief Matthew Boyd’s luck runs out, he wrote that “Boyd’s officers, have for years, been engaging in a systematic, ongoing pattern of harassment aimed at the owner, employees and patrons of 207 Quickstop, a convenience store on NW 207th Street. This despite the fact that Miami Gardens is one of the most crime-ridden and violent cities in Florida.”

When I asked Random Pixels if he wasn’t confusing the Miami Gardens Police Department with Opa-locka’s, he wrote back, “Opa-Locka PD. Miami Gardens PD. Both vying to beat out Sweetwater as Miami-Dade’s most corrupt police department.” Scathing commentary, huh?

In an op-ed published in today’s Miami Herald, Miami Gardens make much ado about nothing in arrests, Fred Grimm wrote:

“Not that Miami Gardens doesn’t need vigorous policing. Over an 11-day stretch beginning in late October, 10 people were gunned down in the city, including an 11-year-old girl. Last year, Miami Gardens, a working-class town of modest homes and a population of about 110,000, suffered 25 homicides and 369 robberies.

But it’s hard to imagine how the arresting and rearresting of a guy like Earl Sampson, 62 times over, might stanch gun violence and gang warfare. Though I suppose it does lower the odds that Sampson himself will be murdered, given the amount of time he spends in police custody. But Sampson’s not exactly the Al Capone of Miami Gardens. I’m guessing that the city police might make better use of their resources.”

Ya think?

Scariest of all is that two years ago former North Miami Beach city manager Lyndon Bonner considered either merging with, or bidding out our police department to, … MIAMI GARDENS!  (In the interest of full disclosure, I humiliatingly admit that I even encouraged that consideration at the time.  No, not my finest moment.)

While we should all be grateful and relieved that Bonner never followed through with that particular proposal, he did set in motion a series of events that has left our police department in an abysmal state.  The eighty five police officers still employed in North Miami Beach are doing their best to pick up the void left by the twenty five officers who departed since January 1, 2011.  Granted, some of them left through attrition (i.e., they retired or resigned), but we have hired only two new officers to take their place since that time.  As I wrote in It sucks to be us, “There were three, but one recently was fired due to incompetence.  Apparently, that’s the best we can do these days.”  We also lost our highly regarded and much needed Gang Unit.

A brand new Chief of Police is scheduled to be sworn in on December 3, 2013.  He’s got his work cut out for him.

What I do know is that morale in our police department is at an all time low.  Between the loss of take home cars (which the officers don’t even give a crap about anymore), and the drastic cuts in their pension plan, most of them would just as soon cut their losses and run.  Many of them already have done so, and several more have already applied to other agencies.

Members of the City Council keep telling me that once we have more revenue through planned future development, North Miami Beach will be able to hire more police officers and form a new gang unit.

I’d love to know what they’re smoking.

Apparently there’s no talking to them, as they honestly believe they are doing what’s in the best interest of the residents of North Miami Beach.  Unfortunately, I don’t believe they’re looking at the bigger picture.

For starters, I keep hearing the same talking point that the pension reforms being implemented are “moving forward.”  Yet, the city has not even considered a two tier system in which these reforms will only affect new hires.  The proposed pension reforms affect all current and future police officers, with the only exception being those who have already entered the DROP.  The lame excuse I hear for not having two tiers is that it would be “unfair” for officers who work “side by side” to have two different pension plans.

Sorry, but that’s total crap if you ask me.  Employees in both the private and the public sector work under whatever employment provisions are in place at the time of their employment.  They know what the deal is when they apply for the job.  It’s up to them to decide whether they like that plan or not.  No one is forcing them to take the job.

The same goes for new hires in the police department.  Future applicants will know exactly what North Miami Beach is offering, and they can apply, or not, as they see fit.  We can only hope that there are enough quality applicants who will seek employment here to maintain a quality department.

Unfortunately, the bigger problem is that future applicants already know that whatever employment plan they sign up for isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, since our City Council has already proven they won’t honor a deal.

As I pointed out in A Deal’s A Deal, the biggest sticking point I have with the proposed pension reform is the sweeping change in retirement eligibility from “20 years of credited service” to “25 years of credited service,” despite the fact that officers have been contributing an additional 2.5% of their income for the last ten years in order to retire after 20 years.

Even worse, the city plans to keep collecting this extra 2.5% (“moving forward?”) from all current and future officers, while giving nothing in return for this additional contribution.  WTF?

On top of that, the city is taking away the GUARANTEED COLA the police officers are supposed to receive in exchange for giving up the right to direct payment of Section 185 funds, which I also mentioned in my earlier column.

One Council member I spoke with seemed to honestly (and somewhat naively) believe that all the proposed changes were to be made “moving forward.”  She was adamant that the officers would still receive all the benefits they had already earned up to the point the reforms will be enacted (specifically referring to the lower multiplier for pension benefits).  Hence, the “moving forward” mantra.

When I questioned her further, however, about the 2.5% additional contribution the officers had made, she claimed she had absolutely no knowledge of this matter.  I was, to put it mildly, shocked that she would vote for the pension reforms and yet not have a clue that the current officers have already purchased five years off their employment terms.  It made me wonder how many other members of the Council understood exactly what was in the proposal that they unanimously voted for.

When I wrote about this issue, I clearly pointed out, “If the city wants to take away these benefits, the officers should be fairly reimbursed for the loss of them, with interest.  The city needs to either pay the officers back for their lost investment or honor the agreements.  This is beyond fairness.  It’s simply a matter of the police officers getting what they paid for.  After all, a deal’s a deal.”

Obviously, not all of them read this blog.  And that’s fine with me, since I’m only one voice in the community.  The residents who don’t read it, and especially don’t pay any attention to local politics, only know that crime in North Miami Beach is getting worse.  What they may not know is that we lost way too many veteran officers and, especially, our Gang Unit.

As I stated above, I hope our new Police Chief J. Scott Dennis will be able to turn things around in our department.  I welcome him and, for the sake of our officers and residents, I wish him the best of luck.  I hope he can do something to raise the morale at the PD.

I’m also making one last appeal to the City Council to reevaluate their reform proposal before the second reading to reconsider a two tier system so that the changes can truly be “moving forward.”  (The first reading passed 7-0 with absolutely no fanfare last Tuesday night.)  I would also implore them to restore the 20 year retirement eligibility for those officers who have already been contributing the additional 2.5% of their income for this purpose.  If won’t consider doing that, the city should reimburse those officers for the money they have already paid.

If a deal is not a deal here in North Miami Beach, we cannot reasonably expect that quality applicants will even consider coming here.  What we can expect are Opa-locka or Miami Gardens rejects to apply to be NMB police officers.

When I moved to North Miami Beach over 23 years ago, the big draw was its enviable police department.  I didn’t know who the mayor was and I didn’t care about the politics whatsoever.  All I knew at the time was that NMBPD had the best reputation in the entire county.

Now, not so much.

Unless our police department problems are resolved quickly, the next police story Random Pixels writes could be about North Miami Beach.  If that happens, I won’t be surprised to get an email from him saying, “Opa-Locka PD. Miami Gardens PD. North Miami Beach PD. All vying to beat out Sweetwater as Miami-Dade’s most corrupt police department.”

How sad would that be?

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”