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Exposito reserved most of his ire for the report’s scathing criticism of the tactical units, which included the heavily armed SWAT team and Exposito’s creation, the Tactical Robbery Unit, which featured plainclothes detectives in unmarked cars targeting criminals in high-crime areas.
The beefing up of tactical units was a hallmark of Exposito’s term, a priority he continues to defend. After he was fired, in late 2011, Orosa scaled back the units, returning many of the detectives to the patrol ranks.
Exposito insisted that his staff properly vetted tactical unit candidates, training them well and outlining sound tactical plans — all points of criticism in the Justice Department report. Those detectives, by the nature of their assignments, were bound to engage in more shootings than uniformed cops, he said.
Miami Fraternal Order of Police President Javier Ortiz said the union agreed with some of the Justice Department's findings. Chief among them: that the Miami Police Department has training deficiencies and lacks supervisors on the street.
But overall, Ortiz wrote in a statement, "there is clearly a disconnect between the USDOJ and the reality of what our Miami police officers confront on a daily basis." Ortiz said he was troubled that the report painted the department as run like "the wild, wild west."
Several community leaders who had called for the federal review praised the Justice Department report.
Rep. Wilson called the findings “terrible” for the city, but said she is hopeful that the community and the police department can work with the judge to reform the department’s problematic “culture.’’
Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said he was “not surprised” by Justice’s findings.
“People’s rights have been violated and lives have been unjustly taken,” Simon wrote in a statement, calling for a follow-up investigation into the police officers involved in the fatal shootings.
“Finding out whether there are officers who can be held responsible is necessary if the people’s trust in the police who are sworn to protect them is going to be restored,” he wrote.
Miami Herald news partner CBS4 contributed to this report.
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