New cops left old jobs under a cloud

Many Pembroke Park officers welcomed to department were fired or pushed out

PEMBROKE PARK — Many cops who left under a cloud from their police jobs — who were fired or forced out by their old departments — are now back on duty, welcomed in by Pembroke Park, a small town determined to create a new police department, a South Florida Sun Sentinel review has found.

The Pembroke Park Police Department last month acknowledged it didn’t subject all of its officers to full, customary background checks, instead opting to conduct them to varying degrees. So the South Florida Sun Sentinel, through public records, examined the officers’ pasts. The newspaper’s review reveals:

One officer left the Davie Police Department rather than being fired for misusing police computers to help a relative, police records show.

An officer who came from Lauderhill Police had been let go after the agency said he lied to investigators to help a co-worker.

An officer from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office was dismissed after being accused of cussing at co-workers and then days later trying again to get time off to watch a football game, although he had already been denied the time because of staffing issues.

A fourth was fired from West Palm Beach Police after a brawl with another cop in the police parking lot.

Another officer went to trial on criminal charges of official misconduct, falsifying reports and perjury while he worked at Fort Lauderdale Police, but was

acquitted in 2015.

An officer was fired from his job at the Broward Sheriff’s Office for excessive force. After being hired by Pembroke Park police, he left the agency this year.

Meanwhile, some of the newly hired officers left past jobs in good standing, including high-ranking people who had retired from other agencies.

Police Chief David Howard hired 15 people, from officers up to a captain, to make up his new force. Of the 15, there are seven police officers and one reserve officer. The others include a detective and supervisors.

The department opened earlier than expected to avoid at least a four-month gap without police coverage after the town ended its contract with the Sheriff ’s Office, and the town leaders were unwilling to renew, despite last-minute pleadings from the town manager, to slow it all down.

Town Manager Juan “J.C.” Jimenez’s concern was dismissed, with a response from Mayor Geoffrey Jacobs: “I’m tired of the stupidity and the incompetence.”

Because all 15 of the new hires had previous law enforcement experience, Howard recently told the Sun Sentinel he would forgo some elements of a traditional background check. Records show the town skipped sections of customary background checks including the officers who had faced issues in their past jobs.

Only two of the 15 new members were given polygraph tests; three of them given psychiatric tests; and five of them tested on physical agility, town records show. Among law enforcement agencies, the physical agility tests are generally considered necessary to detect previous injuries that could later be fraudulently claimed as a workers’ compensation issues, as well as their ability to chase fleeing suspects.

Because the officers were all active members coming from other police departments, “I didn’t see the need,” Howard previously told the newspaper of traditional checks the night that 11 new members were sworn in on a Wednesday night, days before the department opened after midnight Oct. 1.

Town officials declined to comment about the Sun Sentinel’s findings, and none of the Pembroke Park officers could be reached for comment. On Saturday, during a public meeting, the police chief, the mayor and others celebrated the officers’ work so far.

“We’re very lucky we got all experienced officers,” Howard said at Saturday’s meeting. “We’re very fortunate that they came here.” Creating the department involved “really hard” work, and now, “It’s not our baby anymore,” he said. “It belongs to the town of Pembroke Park and the officers who are out there every day.”

This past week, Howard did not respond to the Sun Sentinel’s request for comment by email or text about why he chose to hire the officers.

The department was the brainchild of Mayor Jacobs, who said the department was needed to save money from the Broward Sheriff ’s Office, the town’s longtime agency, and provide better coverage.

“I went against the status quo three years ago when I started this process of building a police department because I saw a need for it in this community, what we were paying for and what we weren’t getting from the sheriff ’s department,” he said at the meeting Saturday.

Jacobs did not respond to the Sun Sentinel about why the officers were hired, only writing Friday: “I’m here rebuilding a neglected community and you are doing nothing but trying to tear it down . ... And I have asked you politely, not to contact me again.”

Howard and Jacobs detailed the department’s work in the first two weeks. There were about 300 calls for service, the chief said. Officers have done traffic stops, and responded to about 21 crashes as Friday. They recovered stolen items, and worked to deter “drifting,” or when drivers intentionally skid or drive in circles. Also, officers helped remove a car that was stuck on the train tracks, and one officer was slightly injured while ensuring “no one else was in a burning structure,” the mayor said.

“I’m very proud of all the officers working here,” the mayor said. “I couldn’t be happier with what we have for a police department. The compliments keep coming in, which is something kind of unheard of.”

‘Willing to recruit anybody’

Still, the limited scrutiny of officers has drawn the wrath of experts who warn that hiring members of a police department without all of the elements of a traditional background check is a mistake. “It’s risky, period,” said Maria Haberfeld, a professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

It’s not just an issue in Pembroke Park; it’s a national problem, she said. “We experience a decline in recruitment standards because departments cannot recruit,” she said. “Slowly but surely they are reducing the standards. I am seeing it around the country.”

That sends the “message to be a police officer you only need a pulse.”

“It’s bad for the profession,” she said. “It’s a profession with so much power, power over people’s lives. How can you decide it’s not important enough to have a thorough background check? This to me is unacceptable, this to me is irresponsible.” Haberfeld said she fears it sends a message that departments are “literally willing to recruit anybody.”

Here’s what records show about the officers: