How many North Miami residents have to complain about crime before someone – ANYONE – takes them seriously?

Yet another Keystone Point resident is upset about crime in her neighborhood.  After her car was broken into, and its expensive accessories were stolen, she reported it to the police, only to be told “that having a nice car makes me a target and it’s my fault for leaving valuables in the car.”

NICE!

This same resident recently witnessed a driver leaving the scene of an accident after he hit her neighbor’s parked car late at night.  The woman was resourceful enough to obtain the license tag number, and then promptly called the police, who arrived at about 12:30 in the morning.  Once she gave them a statement and the license plate number, she assumed they would then follow through and attempt to catch the suspect.

She assumed incorrectly.

In a letter to City Manager Larry Spring this morning, the resident wrote:

The house where the car belongs to is under construction and one cannot access the front door.  Several days went by until I saw the people and I mentioned to them about the accident.  They told me that night at 1 am the police came banging at their back door and asked them where they had gotten into an accident, where they were that night and what happened.  Obviously they had no clue what the officers where talking about.  Never once did the officers mention to them that a neighbor called and had all the cars information.  I told them I had the tag and car make and exact time it happened since I called the police.  I am so upset and furious that the officers did not relay the information to them.

The complete bungling of this call is yet another symptom of the systemic problem with Chief Lenny’s North Miami Police Department.

The adage that the fish rots from the head down aptly describes the complete and utter lack of leadership at the helm of what should be a professional law enforcement agency.  When an organization fails it is the leadership that is the root cause.

The abysmal failure of the most important department charged with serving and protecting the residents of the sixth largest municipality in Miami-Dade County can only be blamed on the head of that department – Police Chief Leonard Burgess.

Unfortunately, North Miami residents have been conditioned to accept a generous helping of mediocrity served along with a side dish of abject acceptance of crimes that would be unacceptable anywhere else.

Keystone Point residents, who pay extra taxes for what amounts to a false sense of security, are being told that crime is a fact of life … deal with it.

I beg to differ.

In North Miami Beach’s Eastern Shores, for example, residents also pay more for guard gates and security cameras.  They would never put up with the continuous barrage of break-ins, burglaries, car thefts and armed home invasions.

Then again, despite its smaller police force and even more limited resources, the North Miami Beach Police Department is run like a professional law enforcement agency.  Despite all the problems they’ve been dealt (no contracts, no raises, slashed benefits, and the like), every officer in the NMBPD takes their duties seriously.  Serving the residents of North Miami Beach is their top priority.  The only reason for this success is that the North Miami Beach Police Department is run by a professional Chief of Police and his top notch Command Staff, all of whom are well regarded and respected by the officers of the department and the residents of the city.

Unlike Lenny, Police Chief William Hernandez never allows politics to interfere in the professionalism of his police department.

Unlike Lenny, Police Chief Hernandez would never tell residents that their expensive cars makes them easy targets.

And you can bet that, unlike Lenny, Police Chief Hernandez would NEVER make unwanted advances to female subordinates!

Like calling a sergeant “Chica Rica” in a text message!

But, wait!  There’s MORE!

As I previously posted, Chief Lenny’s “accomplishments” can be summed up in this nutshell:

Time and time again, Chief Lenny has proven himself to be completely unqualified to be the Chief of Police of the sixth largest municipality in Miami-Dade County.

Like the time that Chief Lenny flat out lied that he was never investigated for charges of sexual harassment.

And then there’s the time that Chief Lenny vindictively punished veteran police officers because he was paranoid that they were “leaking” information to the press.

And then there’s the time that a dispatcher in Chief Lenny’s police department made death threats over the phone while on duty.

And then there’s the time that Chief Lenny’s dispatchers completely bungled a call by the son of a resident who feared his mother was having a heart attack.  Chief Lenny falsely blamed it on Miami-Dade County dispatchers, and then stuck to his guns when caught in yet another lie.

And then there’s the time that this same dispatch office ignored a man who walked into the police department with a gun he found, attempted to turn it in, and then left it in the lobby – bullets and all – after he was put on hold by dispatchers for more ten minutes.  The gun remained unattended for over five hours!

And then there’s the time that he refused to alert residents in Keystone Point that there had been an armed home invasion in the area.  After the distraught victim notified his neighbors … and the media, Chief Lenny responded with a Walk & Talk and a distribution of brochures.

The investigation of that armed home invasion also revealed a failure of the security cameras, for which Keystone Point residents pay extra in taxes.  In response to resident outrage, Chief Lenny of course, blamed the County.

And that’s just the highlights of his missteps to date.

But there is hope for Keystone Point residents.

Just across the causeway, only five minutes away, the glittering islands of Bay Harbor beckon.

Despite the bogus stats that Chief Lenny likes to brag on, there is no way that the North Miami crime rate is even close to that of the Town of Bay Harbor Islands.

According to the 2014 FBI statistics for violent crimes, if North Miami’s crime rate were the same as Bay Harbor Islands, there would have been approximately 50 violent crimes in North Miami instead of 577.

Just saying.

In the final analysis, no matter how Chief Lenny tries to spin it, North Miami residents are getting the short end of the stick.  Under Chief Lenny’s watch, the North Miami Police Department has devolved into a decidedly un-comical version of Keystone Cops.

No pun intended, of course.  😉

North Miami residents deserve better.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”