Miami

Cameras, Cops and NOI

Nearly $1 million spent on crime-fighting programs

By Erik Bojnansky

Miami’s Community Redevelopment Agency will try to take a bite out of crime in Overtown and its neighboring areas using video cameras, visible cops and Nation of Islam members.

On Monday, three Miami commissioners, acting as the board of directors of the CRA, invested $993,392 on three separate crime-fighting initiatives.

The largest allocation was for $500,000 to install 10 video cameras within what Deputy Chief Frank Fernandez called “zone five” — an area he described as the “nucleus” of Overtown’s most violent crimes, as “determined by statistics and bodies of individuals.”

“[They cover] 360 degrees of everything,” Fernandez said. “All these cameras will be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The city of Miami currently has cameras on Biscayne Boulevard and East Flagler Street.

Purchased from Fort Myers-based Integrated Fire and Security Solutions, the Overtown cameras, which come with a two-year warranty, can zero in on a car’s license plate from hundreds of yards away, said Commissioner Tomas Regalado.

Commissioner Joe Sanchez asked what would happen if the cameras were damaged intentionally. “These cameras are going to be vandalized,” he said.

Fernandez replied that he hopes “the neighborhood takes ownership” of the cameras since they will protect residents from violent crimes. Intentional damage is not covered by the warranty and the Miami Police Department does not have the budget to replace them.

Regalado, an announced mayoral candidate, suggested that funds used for paying off the bonds for the construction of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts could be used to buy more cameras. “Don’t worry,” Regalado said to Fernandez. “If you break one of the cameras, we won’t pay the [performing arts center] because it is more important that you have the cameras.”

The CRA also approved $344,000 to fund the MPD’s yearlong “police visibility program” in Overtown’s 24-hour “entertainment district” and the area surrounding the Arsht Center in the neighboring Omni redevelopment district. The program will budget one sergeant and five officers eight hours each for “club operations” and one sergeant and five officers seven hours each for “special operations” in Overtown.

Those officers will conduct “sweeps” in and around the clubs, as well as a “number of operations to identify and document chronic criminals [who] conceal themselves within the large homeless population,” including prostitution details and narcotic surveillances, according to a Feb. 25 memo from Miami Police Chief John Timoney.

A third initiative called the Overtown Peacemakers Project — proposed by Progressive Land Development International Inc., which is headed by Minister Rasul Muhammad of the Nation of Islam’s Muhammad Mosque No. 29 —  is a five-month pilot program that aims to deter crimes by partnering with Overtown residents and marching up and down troubled streets.

Muhammad said the Peacemakers Project was going to be implemented with or without the $150,000 grant from the CRA. However, the funds will enable participants to “get paid” for their work. Five peacemakers, or squad leaders, will coordinate with more than nine volunteers to help patrol the streets “six, seven or eight hours a day,” he said.

“The first month of the pilot program consists of training,” CRA Executive Director James Villacorta wrote in an April 18 memo to the board. “For the next three months, a team of 14 service workers will serve as the initial point of contact for residents. An additional eight peacemakers will serve as role models for youth. The final month of the pilot program will consist of meetings with the community and focus groups.”

The operators of the Peacemakers Project, according to Villacorta, “promise a reduction in drug-related activity, illegal dumping and vandalism, while increasing drug rehabilitation and community involvement.” Muhammad said the project, which was patterned after a similar program in Detroit, also consists of “knocking on doors.”

At least four people spoke in favor of the project, including Loren Daniel, a city of Miami administrator with the Overtown Neighborhood Enhancement Team Office, who said the Peacemakers Project will provide male role models for Overtown teenagers.

The CRA’s chair, Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, cautioned that in order for the project to succeed, its volunteers need to work “hand-in-hand” with the Miami Police Department.

At the same time, Spence-Jones, whose district includes Overtown, said the volunteers can serve as ambassadors to a community suspicious of the police.

“When the cameras go up and additional police are in the area, [some Overtown residents] will feel like they are [being] invaded,” she said. “We want to eliminate crime, but we do not want to impede on the lives of people who are trying to get their lives on track.”

Regalado said he liked that the Peacemakers Project wasn’t directly affiliated with the city of Miami. At one point, he suggested waiving the insurance requirement so it could be up and running immediately.

“They are not doing anything that could [get the city sued]?” he asked. “They are doing good things. What are they going to do, break down the doors to talk to someone?”

Sanchez pointed out that $12,500 was budgeted for insurance in the Peacemakers Project, enough for a $1 million bond.