Miami commission calls meeting to grill police chief
Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo, a surprising and prized hire by the mayor, is on the hot seat only five months into the job.
Miami commissioners — angered about controversial decisions and gaffes by the new chief — have called for a special meeting in two weeks to grill Acevedo and potentially decide his future. Last week, in the most recent controversy, the chief drew a rebuke from commissioners for telling a group of officers the department was run by the “Cuban mafia.”
Acevedo — a Cuban American who gained national prominence while serving as police chief in
Houston during last summer’s Black Lives Matter marches — apologized for a comment that he said he intended as a joke. He said he was unaware the term had been coined by Fidel Castro to paint Miami exiles as criminals for opposing his dictatorship. The majority of city commissioners are either exiles or have families who have suffered during the six decades of oppression under the Communist regime.
“I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a new transplant come here and do whatever he wants,” Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo declared from the dais Monday night. “Each one of us are duly elected. And each one of us has deep roots in this community.”
Acevedo, who was sworn in on April 5, came highly touted by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who said at the time that “we got the Michael Jordan of police chiefs.”
His brief tenure has been steeped in controversy.
Acevedo fired the highest-ranking police couple in the department for not properly reporting a patrolvehicle accident. He relieved a popular sergeantat-arms from duty and demoted four majors, including one of the city’s highest-ranking Black female officers, without explanation.
He posed for a selfie — unaware, he said — that it was with a leading member of South Florida’s chapter of the white nationalist group the Proud Boys. He has rankled members of the judiciary by repeatedly blasting them for early inmate releases.
Carollo was set to discuss Acevedo’s future Monday. But with a packed chamber awaiting a budget hearing, commissioners delayed the hearing until Sept. 27. Commissioners can’t fire the police chief. But a vote of no confidence can go a long way toward influencing Acevedo’s boss, City Manager Art Noriega.
Carollo noted as much Monday, warning Noriega, “We are your bosses.”
The special meeting was also welcomed by Fraternal Order of Police President Tommy Reyes, who has been at odds with the chief, especially over statements made by the chief to department rank-and-file.
“I think he’s done enough” to warrant the meeting, Reyes said. “He’s put his foot in his mouth enough times and made enough bad decisions that he needs to be called to the table.”
Acevedo, who was in the chamber during Carollo’s tirade, did not speak after Carollo’s remarks. He also has not responded to repeated phone calls, texts, direct messages and requests for interviews through his office over the past week and on Tuesday.
The last time a meeting like the one called for Sept. 27 took place, Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito lost his job over being insubordinate. That meeting came after seven police shooting deaths of Black men; most were unarmed.