Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Sheriff ’s captain resigns
Jordan criticized for her role in response to Parkland shooting
FORT LAUDERDALE – A Broward sheriff ’s captain resigned and a sergeant was placed on administrative duty Tuesday for their roles in responding to the Parkland school shooting.
Jan Jordan, the captain formerly in charge of the Parkland division, resigned several days after she was widely criticized by a state commission for her role leading the response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting.
She cited “personal reasons” in her separation form.
A news release states that Jordan told Sheriff Scott Israel of her intentions Monday night.
Parkland Sgt. Brian Miller was placed on paid administrative duty pending the outcome of an internal review of his response to the shooting.
He had to surrender his badge and weapons and was prohibited from taking “any law enforcement action,” an internal memo states.
Miller was the highestranking officer initially at Stoneman Douglas when a
19-year-old former student marched into the school Feb. 14 and killed 17 with an assault rifle.
At a meeting last week of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission — a state panel reviewing the shooting — the chairman denounced Miller for his failure to act.
“He sat up on Holmberg Road for 10 minutes,” said chairman Bob Gualtieri, who is also the Pinellas County sheriff. “He heard gunshots and he didn’t move. He never got on the radio. He was the first supervisor on the scene, and he never moved, even after deputies and officers were going into that building.”
The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Saturday that nine months after the shooting few people have been held accountable for mistakes made by key officials before and after the massacre.
Israel stood before the commission members last week and said he was eagerly awaiting their report, saying there likely would be things he would read and hear for the first time about his deputies’ response.
If he learned that one of his deputies acted inappropriately or failed to act, he said: “I can assure you that we will continue the investigation, we will do robust internal affairs review and, if we find out that one or more deputies chose a path of inaction, they will be disciplined and they will be disciplined swiftly.”
In a statement released to the media Tuesday, Israel said that due to the commission’s preliminary findings, he “felt it was prudent to place Sgt. Brian Miller on administrative duty pending the outcome of an internal review of his actions.”
He did not comment on Jordan’s resignation.
Some have called on Israel to resign, but Israel told the Sun Sentinel on Tuesday: “I have done nothing wrong that would warrant me to leave office. I’m committed to the Broward Sheriff ’s Office and to the citizens who put me in office.”
Israel said he will remain on the job for “as long as the citizens want me to.”
In addition to Miller, seven Broward deputies, including the school resource officer, heard shots, but none ran into the school to confront and kill the shooter, a troubled former student named Nikolas Cruz.
Coconut Creek Deputy Chief Greg Lees described Jordan as “overwhelmed.” “I could see it,” he told investigators. “I tried to help her.”
A Broward sheriff’s lieutenant, likewise, described the command structure at the scene under Jordan as “ineffective” and “not engaged with the problem.”
“Captain Jordan seemed to have a ‘dream-like’ nature to her speech,” the lieutenant told the commission.
Jordan had worked 20 years at the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, leaving in 2009 at the rank of captain, according to her personnel file. She was hired by the sheriff’s office in January 2013. Israel also had spent much of his career on the Fort Lauderdale force.
Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky welcomed Jordan to the city in April 2017, according to City Commission meeting minutes. She was moved from Parkland to an administrative post several months ago.
In an internal report on the incident, Jordan wrote that the police radio traffic was heavy, “causing the radio system to malfunction.”
“I had intermittent reception and was unable to transmit information.”
Israel told the commission last week that Jordan described her radio as “a brick.”
The county government is in the process of replacing the outdated public safety radio system countywide — a problem it has known about for many years.
Andy Pollack, father of one of the slain teens, called on other public servants to step down, too — those who shrunk from confronting the gunman or failed to provide Cruz with the proper psychiatric care and educational services.
“My daughter was murdered,” he said. “Now step up and accept responsibility for all your failed tactics that day and leading up to the 14th. The mental health caseworkers and the school administrators — they need to start coming clean.”