Fort Lauderdale mulls review of police
National group might assess local department
FORT LAUDERDALE – The same experts called in to assess the Ferguson Police Department after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown might be commissioned to do a similar review of the troubled Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
The agency has been under scrutiny since May 31, when its officers unleashed tear gas and rubber bullets during a protest over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The incident left city leaders horrified and embarrassed, particularly Commissioner
Robert McKinzie, the board’s only
Black member.
McKinzie says he, too, has had bad experiences with police.
“Atraffic stop or interaction with a police officer doesn’t mean you should lose your life,” he said. “And it’s happening more and more and more now. We have heard the cries of the people. Now we still need to go out and get the info to make sure we’re making the right changes.”
City Manager Chris Lagerbloom, who has a background in law enforcement, said he is in talks with theNational Police Foundation to conduct an outside review of the Fort Lauderdale police force.
“They’ve done some assessments of some other high-profile agencies [like] Fer
guson,” Lagerbloom said. “I’m looking for an agency assessment. I would be interested in their review of our use-of-force policies and our Internal Affairs process and policies.”
The National Police Foundation has worked with police agencies in Ferguson, North Charleston and Phoenix. The nonprofit outfit, a leader in police reform, also reviewed how L.A. police handled the Rodney King riots in the 1990s.
Lagerbloom, who is still negotiating the price of the contract, said he expects the review to take at least four months.
Ready for change
Lagerbloom hopes an independent review will provide a road map for the transformation of an agency that, like others across the nation, has been rocked by a national outcry for social justice.
Protesters nationwide point to the killings of unarmedBlack men and women, including teens like Michael Brown, gunned down by police in 2014 on the streets of Ferguson.
The shooting set off riots and protests that lasted for weeks and led to the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement. A stinging report by the U.S. Justice Department accused Ferguson police of racial bias and a pattern of unconstitutional policing.
The nationwide call for reform has hit home in Fort Lauderdale.
During the May 31 protest, Officer Steven Pohorence was captured on video shoving a kneeling protester to the ground. Hewas relieved of duty and has been charged with misdemeanor battery.
That same day, Detective Eliezer Ramos fired a rubber bullet that struck protester LaToya Ratlieff in the face. She later testified before Congress about police use of force and in August met with Mayor Dean Trantalis and Lagerbloom to discuss police reform.
“We are part of the national engagement taking place in many cities throughout the country,” Trantalis said.
“We met with LaToya Ratlieff a few weeks ago. She met with us not to threaten but to talk to us about how we could make changes. We hope to be able to continue our conversation with her and others going forward.”
Trantalis pointed to the recent removal of the department’s police chief as one sign the city is responding to the cry for change.
“We are also looking for systemic changes within our police department,” he said.
Lagerbloom removed Rick Maglione as chief on July 9 – six weeks after the May 31protest turned ugly.
Longway to go
Lagerbloom has declined to reveal exactly what prompted the abrupt change in leadership, but the timing is noteworthy. Maglione’s demotion came five days after he sent out a July Fourth message on social media hailing his officers as heroes and criticizing those protesters who came to attack them.
McKinzie said he thinks the agency has a longway to go still.
“I don’t think we’re better,” he said. “I think we made changes to get through the tough times. We were cast in a national headline about misconduct by our officers. I want to assure the community we are taking the right steps. Right now what’s going on nationally has happened here in this city. I want to turn that corner.”
Lagerbloom appointed Karen Dietrich, one of the department’s assistant chiefs, to lead the department while the city conducts a nationwide search for a new chief. Dietrich, who’s spent her entire career at the agency, says she plans to apply for the job.
Lagerbloom told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he hopes to have the new chief in place by the end of October.
He said he reached out to National Police Foundation President and CEO Jim Burch soon after theMay 31 protest thrust the Fort Lauderdale Police Department into the spotlight.
“Hewas quick to set up a meeting with me post May 31,” Lagerbloom said. “Having a background in law enforcement, I still have a lot of colleagues in law enforcement that I reached out to, so they could advise me.” Several pointed him to Burch.
Last year, Burch’s group stepped in when Portland needed an outside group to investigate whether police acted with bias during demonstrations involving rightwing and anti-fascist protesters. For $200,000 the National Police Foundation was hired to handle the independent inquiry.
Over the past 50 years, thenonprofit has led several policing studies andworked with hundreds of police agencies. Phoenix hired the National Police Foundation to review its deadly use of force after a spike in officerinvolved shootings in 2018. The review showed Phoenix had 44 police-involved shootings, more than any other U.S. department that year.
Phoenix opted to buy body worn cameras after the city-commissioned study.
“We have worked in cities of all sizes all over the United States — from Baltimore to Chicago to San Bernardino — as well as internationally in Mexico and Canada,” said Erica Richardson, spokeswoman for the National Police Foundation. “We are currently engaged with the Los Angeles Police Department to assess the agency’s response to mass protests.”
The organization conducts top-to-bottom organizational assessments and after-action reviews as well as training on officer safety and community policing.
Learning from what went wrong
“Our work does not aim to find fault or criticize public safety agencies, but to identify ways to learn from failures and challenges, acknowledging the current environment around race and policing,” Richardson said.
In Ferguson, the group’s experts worked on helping the department with recruiting, training, and accountability and transparencyto improve community trust.
“We also worked in St. Louis County, the county in which Ferguson lies, just after the incidents that unfolded in Ferguson in 2014,” Richardson said. “Because of the proximity of the county and Ferguson and the mix of many law enforcement agencies there, the community was extremely distrustful of law enforcement agencies in the area.”
The foundation’s experts came up with a laundry list of recommendations listed in a182-page report.
The assessment team spoke with young people who said they often do not understand police actions and believe that the police do not understand them, according to the report.
The report recommended officers create and maintain a series of policeyouth dialogues to increase trust and cooperation in neighborhoods most affected by violence and crime.
The assessment team also recommended ways to improve the way citizens file complaints about the police, saying the department might be unintentionally limiting complaints by not publicizing the locations where complaints can be filed or making it clear that the department takes anonymous complaints.
The team also recommended establishing a policemediation program using a trained independent party to mediate citizen complaints against police employees.
“The mediation allows both the employee and the citizen to discuss their issues in a safe and impartial environment,” the report said. “The employee and community member are able to collaborate with each other rather than treat each other as adversaries and to have their complaints dealt with in an efficient manner. The goal is to build more understanding and better relations between the community and [police].”