Miami-Dade police shouldn’t police themselves. Let citizen oversight board weigh in on bad cops | Editorial

Street demonstrators, community leaders and many residents of all hues are rightly demanding more police accountability. Miami-Dade County commissioners should step up right now to fulfill this demand: Begin the process by reinstating the civilian oversight panel to independently investigate citizens’ complaints of police misconduct.

Currently, there are two efforts under way to revive the panel — an ordinance proposed by commissioners and a petition push to put a charter amendment, crafted by a coalition of community organizations, on the November ballot.

Whatever the route, this panel, unlike the one disbanded in 2009, cannot be pretend theater. This time, the panel must have subpoena power, an independent director, legal counsel and budget for staff.

Unfortunately, the previous panel did little to keep bad cops off the street. It was toothless, created more to mollify aggrieved residents than make an impact.

In recent days, we have seen police officers across the country suspended, fired or arrested for excessive force during protests over George Floyd’s horrible death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. These rightly punitive actions include Fort Lauderdale’s police department. But such responses appear to be the exception, not the rule. Internal Affairs and overly strong police unions tend to protect their own. Throw in states attorney too cowed and too dependent on police support, and violent, over-the-top police officers are free to continue business as usual.

The previous civilian panel lost its funding during a budget crisis in 2009. Since then, incidents of police misconduct in Miami-Dade have been handled by the department itself.

Reinstating the panel is imperative. Commissioner Barbara Jordan sponsored the last version almost two years ago. Mayor Carlos Gimenez threatened to veto it, but it died in committee first.

Last week, Gimenez, who’s running for Congress, said he supports such a panel. He explained his veto threat concerned the composition of the previously proposed panel. “I want the members to be selected by the commissioners,” Gimenez said.

Fine, but he now must aggressively push for a panel with true oversight and real power — and make sure it’s funded, so it can do its job.

Jordan is expected to revive her ordinance. Some commissioners oppose such a panel. Commissioner Joe Martinez, a former police officer and Esteban Bovo, who is running for county mayor, have said in the past the added oversight is an unnecessary layer. “I suffered under these people,” Martinez said in 2018, when there was another attempt to recreate the panel. “I don’t like being judged by people who have never walked in my shoes.”

Commissioner and mayoral candidate Xavier Suarez says he supports the panel. Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, also running for mayor, seeks a more-lasting solution. “I support the basic charter amendment proposal prepared by a local coalition of 26 organizations,” Levine Cava told the Editorial Board. Among the organizations that have helped craft the proposed panel are: NAACP, ACLU, ACLU of Miami, Equality Florida and S.A.L.A.D.

Jeanne Baker, chair of the ACLU of Miami’s police practices committee, has been working for years to create a new framework for the panel via charter amendment. She said the coalition has come up with a list of must-haves for the panel, which would be called the Independent Community Panel, if approved by voters. Turns out, police don’t like the term “oversight.”

“We don’t want the county’s previous version of the panel,” she told the Editorial Board, indicating it lacked bite and was unfocused.

The coalition insists on: a 13-member panel, chosen from each county district, plus one nonvoting police representative; subpoena power, in accordance with state law; an independent director and independent legal counsel; secure funding; and a professional staff, trained in police procedures.

To succeed this time, county leaders will need to stand strong in the face of police unions, which have already come out swinging against any citizen oversight. Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association union, told the Herald, “They want to be totally independent. They answer to nobody. I think that’s kind of dangerous.”

Here’s what’s far more dangerous: cowardly politicians who create a lapdog panel and ensure that it is the police who answer to nobody. Out-of-control police officers are dangerous, too. It’s time to stop giving them cover.

This story was originally published June 7, 2020 at 6:00 AM.