Review board dedicated to holding Miami cops accountable will be disbanded. How come?
For more than 20 years, the City of Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel was the bridge between police and the community — enacting needed reforms within the department, among other key accomplishments. Now, after a new state law went into effect, the panel is slated for disbandment.
On Tuesday, the city announced it would no longer fund the civilian police oversight agency. The city is complying with a bill turned law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that went into effect on July 1. The bill states that no city can fund or adopt a civilian oversight board.
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However, the law allows for a police chief to create their own civilian oversight board and select between three to seven members. The city assured Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales is in the process of establishing a new board.
Rodney Jacobs, head of the CIP, told the Miami Herald he was informed that his department would be disbanded and his six employees would face a possible layoff or firing.
“I don’t believe in the city’s articulation of the law,” he said. “I think [the law] still gives a pathway for it to still exist.”
The current panel functions, in nature, as an investigative unit — combining a staff of former officers and attorneys with a rigorously vetted panel voted on by the Miami Commission.
The agency combs through body camera footage, witness testimony, and sometimes statements from police and internal affairs reports to investigate complaints filed against cops. Jacobs said it handled about 300 cases last year.
He emphasized that the new state law does not cover some of the nuanced and forward-thinking functions created by the investigative panel.
“The state law doesn’t cover our community police mediation program, reviewing and editing department orders and standard operating procedures, and we can still review and audit closed internal affairs cases,” he said.
Jacob’s team has made landmark discoveries over the years, including the uncovering of the mismanagement of the department’s off-duty program.
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According to the city, the Chief’s Advisory Panel, or CAP, will take many of the oversight agency’s responsibilities.
Unlike the CIP, the advisory panel is not inherently an investigative agency. It is an amalgamation of advocacy groups and city residents meeting with Chief Morales to provide feedback on department policies and possible changes. Those groups include the ACLU, NAACP, the Circle of Brotherhood, Parents of Murdered Children and representatives from the LGBTQ community.
The fight to keep the CIP is not over for Jacobs. He said his team is discussing with counsel whether arguing the statutory interpretation of the law is possible.
Jacobs is also asserting that residents make their voices heard by contacting a city representative or attending a Sept. 7 budget.
“I think it’s important for the people to have a voice,” he said. “This is an organization that is in the city’s charter voted by the people.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2024 at 7:27 PM.
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