Term Paper on "History of the Miami Police Department"

Term Paper 12 pages (3444 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Miami Police Department

The history of the City of Miami and the Miami Police Department is examined, along with the way the department developed over time, how it is governed, how it is organized, and how it has responded to such issues as crime, terrorism, and community relations. The way the department is operated today is given particular emphasis.

History of Miami

The Police and the Community

Terrorism

Community Policing

The Miami Police Department is only one of the police agencies in the Miami area. For outsiders in particular, the complexities of the region can be difficult to understand, with distinctions to be made between Miami and Miami Beach and between the Miami Police Department and the larger Miami-Dade Police Department, the latter actually being a county-wide agency. The Miami Police Department has a history of more than a century of service to the people of Miami, with a basis in the city charter for the founding of the city around the turn of the twentieth century. The department has grown over the years and has also kept abreast of new developments in police work throughout the world. The city has also grown over this same period and has had to face new problems, many of them associated with changes in crime rates, in the types of crimes committed, and with other concerns visited on the police department, from racial shifts to new social priorities and more recently the threat of terrorism on American soil. Much of South Florida has also had to cope with the problem of Cuba and the large influx of Cubans fleeing from the Castro regime or sent to America by the Castro regime, as occurred when many Cuban criminals were exported to Florida some three decades ago.

History of Miami

The city of Miami was created through the efforts of Mrs. Julia Tuttle and Mr. Henry Flagler. They had a vision of a new tropical paradise, and this came to fruition in 1896 when the 312 original "Miamians" voted to incorporate the new municipality. At the same time, they elected their first law enforcement officer, Mr. Young F. Gray, a dynamite expert who worked for Mr. Flagler's construction company. After that, Marshal Gray patrolled the city of 1500 citizens in his goat-drawn cart and rounded up stray dogs and the occasional outlaw. Marshal Gray also served as the city's building inspector, sidewalk and street superintendent, sanitation inspector, and tax collector, and he was able to augment his $50 a month salary with a small percentage of the taxes that he collected. Changes were made in 1905 with a new city charter that increased the marshal's term in office from one year to two years. In 1907, another city charter abolished the office of marshal altogether in favor of the newly established Miami Police Department under a Chief of Police., with Frank B. Hardee being the first to hold that position (History of the MPD, 2007).

The city continued to grow so that by 1910, the population had increased to 5,000. The first City Hall was completed and opened on Flagler Street. In 1911, Mr. Robert Ferguson became the second Chief of Police. He established the Desk Sergeant position and created the ranks of captain and lieutenant for the force. He also pioneered the development of the horse-drawn wagon, plainclothes officers, mounted patrol, traffic squad, and motorcycle police patrols.

The first officer was killed in the line of duty in the summer of 1915. This was during a gun battle with a notorious "outlaw" gang during an attempted jail- break. The next chief, elected in 1916, was Raymond F. Dillon, and under his watch, the department hired the first female police officer, Mrs. Ida Fisher. The Department also instituted the Bertillon fingerprinting system and began replacing the horse-drawn wagons with Ford patrol cars (History of the MPD, 2007).

Miami shifted to a commissioner/manager form of city government in 1921, and the Police Department also changed with the new system. After this, the City Manager would appoint the Chief of Police and the Public Safety Director. Police officers were now placed under civil service guidelines establishing age, physical and written examinations, and probation requirements. The City Manager appointed Mr. Leslie Quigg as the first Chief of Police under this system. During Chief Quigg's time in office, the Miami Police Department increased from 40 people to over 200 employees. Chief Quigg also reorganized the department into four divisions, these being traffic, detectives, vice, and motors. He also created a school police force and campaigned to improve relations between the department and the public (History of the MPD, 2007).

Even greater changes were achieved in the 1930's and 1940's. First, the police radio system was established.

In addition, the Police Benevolent Association was created to give police officers assistance in dealing with civil service issues. In 1944, under Chief Charles Nelson, the first black police officers were trained and deployed in Miami's black neighborhoods. In 1947, the Civil Service Commission conferred civil service status on these officers, though true integration into the department would not come for several years (History of the MPD, 2007).

The Miami Police Academy was creaed in 1945, and this was the first police academy in Florida to grant college credit for law enforcement training. The class at the time ran for approximately 6 weeks and included 198 hours of training, averaging 3 classes annually, usually with 9 recruits per class. The last Miami Police Academy class was Recruit Class #82, and it graduated in 1973 after 960 hours of training (Mission and Overview, 2007)..

In 1949, female officers began training at the Police Academy and became sworn members of the department. Then-Chief Headley created the Black Precinct in 1950, a unique racially distinct element that remained in place for 12 years. New headquarters opened in 1956. Chief Headley also established a truly professional Police Academy, introduced the "drunkometer" and the polygraph, and founded a modern scientific crime laboratory (History of the MPD, 2007).

During the 1970s, the Miami Police Department continued work on improving relations with the community. In 1974, Chief Bernard Garmire and Chief Garland Watkins established one of the nation's first para-professional apprenticeships, called the Public Service Aide Program. In 1976, the department relocated into a new, modern headquarters, and by 1979, the department had developed one of the first Integrated Criminal Apprehension Programs. However, 1980 would be one of the worst years in the history of the city when two separate court verdicts outraged Miami's black community and set off three days of bloody rioting. This was also the time when the Mariel boat lift brought over 125,000 new Cuban refugees into Miami because Fidel Castro emptied his jails to send more than 10,000 convicted criminals and people with special needs among the legitimate refugees. As a result, Miami experienced an unprecedented crime wave (History of the MPD, 2007).

The city had two black police chiefs in the next few years, and they worked to change the public image of the department even as the city was torn by racial strife.

One approach was the Do the Right Thing Program, a highly successful program that was tailored to the young students in Miami. The program rewarded youngsters who excelled academically and made significant contributions to their communities. The Miami program would become a national corporation with new chapters across the country. A restructuring was undertaken afdter 1991, creating a metropolis composed of 11 separate Neighborhood Enhancement Teams. Each Team served as a governmental center to administer the various needs of the city, and the Miami Police Department assigned a staff to each Team to address the quality of life in each neighborhood and to administer the law enforcement needs of each community (History of the MPD, 2007).

The Police and the Community

Lewis (1992) shows that the effort to improve relationships with the community often failed, especially with reference to the black community.

Lewis notes that in 1992, the U.S. Justice Department forced the City of Miami Beach to sign a consent decree for the city pay $550,000 in back wages to African-American and Hispanic police and fire department applicants who had been unfairly denied jobs since 1986. At the time, none of the city's 199 firefighters were black, and nly five of the 313 police officers were black. Miami had a black population of only 3.6%, but the employment pool included Dade County, which had 21% black population (Lewis, 1992).

A new chief in 1994 oversaw the hosting of the Summit of the Americas, the largest gathering of heads of state every convened in America. The police department showed the highest level of professional law enforcement and contributed significantly to the success of the event. By this time, the department had a commitment to the philosophy and practice of community policing, and to this end, the HEROS (Helping Enforcement Reach Our Streets) Program was introduced, including the Citizens on Patrol program. This program enlisted, trained, and equipped citizens to patrol… READ MORE

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