Imposing accountability
college degrees, he said. Forty-three percent are minorities, about a third are women and about a third have prior police experience averaging more than six years.
Theresa Kubiak, 73, who has lived in the city for nearly three decades, said she has noticed the progress. She participates in the agency’s Citizens on Patrol, where volunteers act as watchdogs in reporting community crimes.
“Before, it was stagnant,” Kubiak said of the agency. “The programs [Katz has] instituted have changed the police department for the better, and improved the relationship with the people.”
The agency transitioned to a team-based training approach that emphasizes critical-thinking and introspective skills.
For example, instead of officers ticketing someone in rote fashion, they’re trained to think through why they might write a traffic citation instead of issuing awarning, Katzsaid. It gives officers a deeper understanding of not just how they do the job, but why, he said. There is “de-escalation” training, aimed at officers knowing how to end tense situations peacefully.
The department recently rolled out a body-worn camera program, outfitting 86 road-patrol officers with chest-mounted cameras to record their interactions withmembersof the public.
Atumultuous summer in 2011 saw four Boynton officers arrested, including David Britto, the agency’s 2010 Officer of the Year. He was arrested on drug-trafficking charges. He cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and avoided prosecution by fleeing to his native Brazil, authorities said.
Another case involved Officers Michael Mulcahy and Michael Arco, who faced charges after an internal police investigation found they lied about the details of an arrest they
made.
Theofficers claimed they knocked on the motel door of an armed-robbery suspect and arrested him as he tried to back away. But investigators said the door was unlocked by a motel manager at the officers’ requests and they had no authority to enter the room without a searchwarrant.
Mulcahy and Arco avoided prosecution on misconduct charges in exchange for relinquishing their law enforcement licenses.
Such arrests helped brand the department in a negative light, and landed the former Chief Matthew Immler in the hot seat, where the CityCommission grilled him about the department’s hiring and training policies and what could be changed to stem the tide of cops getting themselves into serious trouble.
When Katz became chief, he recognized the need for a cultural shift within the department, City Manager Lori LaVerriere said.
“A lot of guys had been there for a long time, and a lot of the policies, procedures and accountability all needed to be revisited and updated,” she said. “People naturally resist change, even if it’s good change, but he’s been very committed to making a difference.”
The police department was beset with infighting and lack of discipline about five years ago, whenofficers were picking sides with department leaders to be treated favorably, Katz said.
A reorganization of officers’ positions ensued. The commandstaffnowworkas one, so that officers know preciselywhat’s expected of them.
Officers who own up to mistakes likely won’t get anything more than a written reprimand. “In 85 percent of the cases, that is precisely what our personnel do: own their mistakes,” Katz said. “This is our personnel living the value of accountability.”
Other officers have faced harsher sanctions. Several officers have been fired in recent years.
Katz fired an officer who
was arrested on charges of raping a woman while on duty in October 2014. A jury later acquitted Stephen Maiorino, and the city settled a lawsuit from his accuser for $875,000.
In a separate case, the chief askedtheFBIto investigate when a group of officers was recorded beating the occupants of a Mitsubishi in 2014. Police said the Mitsubishi driver had led them on a chase that left one officer seriously injured.
The encounter resulted earlier this month in the arrests of Boynton police Sgt. Philip Antico and Officer Michael Brown, whoare on administrative leave, aswell as former officers Justin Harris and Ronald Ryan. More officers may face charges in the case, a prosecutor said in court.
The four indicted have pleaded not guilty to a range of federal charges that include falsifying police reports and violating civil rights.
Ryan already had been fired for an unrelated matter, Katz said.
The chief said the 2014 chase happened “less than a year into our efforts to transform the culture of the department.” And the agency’s decision to get help from the FBI underscores its commitment to keeping the public’s trust, he said.
Over the past month, two other Boynton Beach officers drew scrutiny over alleged off-duty actions. Officer Vinicius Melo was arrestedMay 24 on a domestic battery charge. Another officer, Nicholas Prince, was accused of drunken driving while off duty in a marked police vehicle. This angers Katz. “Onething I repeat toour personnel with great regularity is, ‘The least of us defines the rest of us, so onany given day, the least of us needs to be pretty darn good,’ ” Katz said.