24 Hours
MPD Must Alert Oversight Board to Police-Related
Shootings Within a Day

“I don’t want to continue on issues that are hot and controversial because I’m not a hot and controversial guy.” 

Miami Police Chief John Timoney will now have to notify the CIP when police officers shoot someone. File photo by Erik Bojnansky

By Omar Sommereyns

At the last Miami City Commission meeting, the Civilian Investigative Panel — the city’s voter-mandated police oversight board — won a resolution that requires that they be notified within 24 hours of a shooting involving the Miami Police Department (a privilege already held by the news media), although not without opposition from the MPD.

Commissioner Tomas Regalado introduced the resolution, which passed unanimously at the Dec. 14 commission meeting after an elongated discussion.

Regalado was rather displeased with the police’s reluctance to support the policy.

“It was a foolish debate,” Regalado told the SunPost. “The city attorney [Jorge Fernandez] and the deputy police chief [Frank Fernandez, no relation] were vehemently opposed to it, but all I was saying is, if the news media gets notified right away, then why can’t the CIP? It is a board that was put in place to oversee the police, so why not?

“In any case,” he added, “it was a victory for the CIP, which has long been at odds with the police in terms of retrieving information. It’s really time for the CIP to be respected because this is a board that was created by the people, for the people. If the police [don’t] like it, then so be it.”

Days after the meeting, Deputy Chief Frank Fernandez said that since the resolution was passed, the police department will comply and notify the CIP. However, he explained, the department was initially concerned about the panel’s intent.

“The CIP ordinance was created to have them investigate matters after the police concluded their own investigations, so when they proposed this, the chief’s first question was, are they looking to respond to the scene and run a concurrent investigation? That would pose a number of problems,” the deputy chief said. “In any police shooting, the lead is the state attorney, and we have a number of procedures we need to follow with that office about who is allowed and who isn’t allowed on the scene. You know, we don’t want anyone tampering with the evidence or anything.”

Regalado, on the other hand, thinks it ridiculous that the CIP would want to rush to the crime scene each time a shooting occurs. “Why would they want to do that? All they want is to be notified,” he said.

Frank Fernandez still believes it was important for the CIP to make clear at the commission meeting that it wouldn’t want to get involved in any police investigation involving a shooting.

“The CIP’s response about intent was just very vague, and so we needed them to tell the commission on the record that they won’t be trying to get on the scene and that they just want us to provide them with notification as we do with all the media,” he said. “[CIP Chair Larry] Handfield’s first response was that the CIP wanted to provide oversight, so to me that means oversee the investigation, be there, do things they are not privileged to do … and I still don’t know what they want to do with that info. I mean, they’re gonna find out about any shootings through the media anyway … We’re not against the CIP, we just want to make sure we follow procedural laws and such with the State Attorney’s Office.”

Meanwhile, Regalado is skeptical of City Attorney Jorge Fernandez’s attitude toward the resolution. “He had an issue with the fact that Charles Mays [the CIP’s legal counsel] didn’t bring up the resolution to him directly and that the CIP made a commissioner do it instead, although I just took on the initiative myself,” Regalado said. “I think the philosophy of the chief and the city attorney is they just don’t like that board and that’s it – in the end, it’s just butting heads.”

When contacted by the SunPost, City Attorney Fernandez would not comment on the issue, merely saying, “I don’t want to continue on issues that are hot and controversial because I’m not a hot and controversial guy. I’m cool, laid-back and say what I have to say at the public meetings.”

Since its inception, the CIP has had quite a strained relationship and a contentious history with the Miami Police Department – from the MPD’s refusal to release its operational plan for the Free Trade Area of the Americas protests in 2003 to delayed responses for various CIP requests for information (such as whether certain officers were properly disciplined, following a CIP investigation).

“I don’t understand why the chief and the department fought so aggressively against this resolution,” commented CIP Chair Larry Handfield. “We are just requiring being included in the notification. What’s the problem with that? It adds to the degree of public confidence and gives us another layer to work with. Plus it lets the police know once again that there is another entity looking over them. All we want is to do our job and I really think it’s sad that [Miami Police Chief John Timoney] is going to fight us tooth-and-nail on every policy we bring up.”

As for the present state of CIP/police relations, Handfield added, “They’re still difficult at best, and we’re hoping for our relationship to improve. We don’t want to be an opposition; we want to be a partner with them and as soon as the chief comes to grips with that, I think we will be able to have a better relationship.”

Comments? E-mail omar@miamisunpost.com.