[0:01] all right good evening ladies and gentlemen

[0:06] this is the north Miami citizens investigative board sitting here in

[0:11] council chambers on Monday February the 26

[0:16] 2024 time is now 6:12 p.m. call to order please stand for the

[0:23] Pledge of

[0:26] Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and

[0:32] to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with

[0:37] liberty and justice for all thank you and please be

[0:42] seated Rose let's have the roll call please with pleasure Vice chair my name

[0:49] is Rose Michelle grandpierre Secretary of the board and we will start with uh

[0:55] the chair who is excused Randy Grace Vice chair Kevin C

[1:00] present RBI Joey Lang present attorney Andre

[1:06] Pierre did we hear from

[1:10] Andre and Miss Mar m we do have to proceed very good thank

[1:18] you very much chair will call for a motion to

[1:22] approve the minutes of our CIB meeting from January

[1:25] 22nd at 6: pm. second all right we have a motion made by Rabbi

[1:32] Lang I second it second by Rose all in favor I second myself there you go all

[1:40] right we've approved the minutes reports our chairperson is absent so I do not

[1:45] have a report on from Randy but Marcia does have a report that she and and

[1:51] Randy attended uh a meeting and I'd like Marcia to please give us that

[1:57] report well we met with speak out of the mic we met with

[2:03] two individuals from the federal government in reference to um a request

[2:10] by the chief to come in and ascertain how we're doing at the police department

[2:16] and um they told us basically what they were

[2:20] going to be doing how they were going to be proceeding and um we were allowed to

[2:24] ask a few questions I had none because they were very succinct in their

[2:28] descriptions as to what was going to be do um they did give us a date as to when

[2:34] the report will be completed but I wasn't prepared I don't remember the

[2:39] date that they said but um they just asked us basically how did we feel

[2:44] personally about our interactions with the police in the city of North Miami I

[2:48] had nothing but positive things to say as I usually do um it was quick painless

[2:53] and I think productive for them in the sense that they got a good sense that

[2:59] our department department is well run and most of the citizens citizenry are

[3:05] happy with our police Bally thank you very much it's a

[3:10] wonderful report all right we have a report from our legal

[3:18] councel there are no open referrals and there have been no new referrals so

[3:22] everything is C all right thank you Dr Harris a report

[3:28] from you please yes so good evening everyone I just want to give you just a

[3:32] update related to House Bill 601 and Senate Bill

[3:36] 576 um as many of you know this these two counterpart bills were filed back in

[3:42] November uh we've been having some fast momentum and movement with that and uh

[3:47] what I want to let you be aware of is last week Wednesday in the Senate um

[3:53] 5676 was passed through a third committee and it was passed by 11 to5

[3:58] vote um um and they're looking at placing it on this Wednesday's calendar

[4:03] for a special order calendar with the Senate and then from the house it

[4:08] actually passed the front the floor um pass majority um from the house this

[4:13] past Thursday so what does that mean it means that um civilian oversight

[4:18] agencies as of July 1st that are existing that are that are actively

[4:22] moving just like us um will be have to uh pretty much dismantle our operations

[4:27] and that's across 21 jurisdictions across the city and counties across the

[4:32] State of Florida and that concludes my report all right Dr Harris to follow up

[4:37] on that have we drafted proposed city ordinance that would broaden the

[4:42] functions of our CIB we had had some discussion about that I actually have a

[4:47] meeting tomorrow with the city manager so probably next next board meeting next

[4:51] month I can give you all more of an update on where we stand on that all

[4:55] right thank you very much you're welcome what forget that

[5:01] they whatever they're planning or trying to accomplish makes no sense um if they

[5:07] pass this why can't the

[5:10] city vote to maintain this the reason why as a city we could

[5:18] not is because it will become a state law in which the state law and the

[5:22] governor will have the authority to actually sanction our city if we did as

[5:26] a local municipality to continue to move forward with civilian oversight that's

[5:31] why we could not do it and what is the prevailing

[5:35] justification for this decision so again the reason and irrational behind this is

[5:41] that they feel that across meaning the House of Representatives and the Senate

[5:45] um all feel as a majority that there are 21 different agencies that are doing 21

[5:51] different things um they don't feel like there's a unified system that's in place

[5:56] they feel it should be handled at a a higher level which could be done by by

[5:59] either the state attorney or FDLE will be the individuals handling um as well

[6:04] as our internal police departments police officers have internal um

[6:08] internal investigations that are in place um and they feel that that should

[6:12] be um handled under those opes in their portfolio have the majority of the

[6:17] police departments um agreed with that we haven't received a a joint um

[6:23] Collective uh conversation about that what we did is we we tried to have a

[6:27] coalition of other civilian oversight and tried to bring together um a

[6:31] convening of police Chiefs but we just were not able as a coalition to be able

[6:36] to move fast enough as fast as that they're moving um to kind of bring a

[6:40] convening of bodies together to discuss um that to kind of see their actual

[6:45] position on it and who initiated it was actually filed um by Senator out of um

[6:55] Jacksonville um and then a House of Representative out of spring Hill

[6:59] Florida um I believe the representative from Spring Hill was representative

[7:03] dougen was the representative out of um Hernando County can't recall the name of

[7:09] the senator that was out of Jacksonville though but it was the senator out of

[7:16] Jacksonville are there any further questions for Dr Harris at this time

[7:21] how's your wife doing pretty good it's doing doing better doing better but it's

[7:26] we have our good days and we have our bad days but we did take it you know I

[7:30] just keep it on the Lord's hands that you know we'll you know we'll Prevail

[7:34] that's all I can say at this point God will thank you all right no further

[7:39] questions thank you all right at this time we move to the North Miami Police

[7:45] Department indiv year report uh who will be presenting will it

[7:50] be major cindyana Paul or the chief good evening board Shere SCA chief of police

[7:57] I am just going to introduce major Paul who will be uh providing the end of year

[8:02] report to you um just wanted to introduce her she joined the Miami

[8:07] Police Department's executive staff in January of 2024 came from the city of

[8:13] Miami Police Department with an extensive background in various facets

[8:17] of law enforcement so she will be overseeing the office of professional

[8:21] compliance which encompasses Internal Affairs uh policy development and

[8:26] officer accountability so with that I introduce you to Major

[8:32] Paul thank good evening everyone good evening

[8:38] good evening uh see the attachments for the

[8:42] report I will say um I'm very proud to be part of this agency and under the

[8:48] wing of Chief boss uh great opportunity um some of the highlights for the annual

[8:56] report we go straight to hold on the first section so we have the

[9:01] supervisory control of persons inventory as you can see there were negative

[9:06] changes so the incidents reported total officers involved the physical all of

[9:11] those numbers have gone down from 2022 to

[9:15] 2023 the next section we have is the traffic crashes even though the increase

[9:21] shows to be higher than the year before um the comparison was attributed to

[9:27] necessarily that the officers not not necessarily that the officers were doing

[9:30] something wrong but the anomaly for 2022 versus 2023 but in total the

[9:36] crashes were not significant enough or there were no patterns or anything that

[9:41] were attributed to the accidents in general so there was nothing major for

[9:46] the staff to follow up with bias based policing there were

[9:52] several presentations that were done throughout the schools um by the cops

[9:56] officers within the department the dates in all the schools that um are

[10:02] listed on pages 6 through

[10:08] 7 happy to report officer involved shootings they still remain at zero um

[10:15] deescalation and also additional training that the officers received was

[10:19] explained as well throughout the year to have a positive impact on

[10:23] that the internal affairs complaints as well from five

[10:29] I'm sorry from a total of eight from the year before to now

[10:36] three and if I'm correct the three Internal Affairs investigations um were

[10:41] internal so it was not necessarily something that came from complaints from

[10:45] citizens to my understanding from what the sergeant explained as well for the

[10:48] year and then we have our action review system is when the officers uh certain

[10:54] actions or policy and discrepancies fall within the category for the year for

[10:59] 2022 we had one and for 2023 we have no officers that fell within that

[11:07] category thank you very much any questions I'm confused I don't know what

[11:12] that means the action review system the action review system uh okay so there is

[11:19] certain policies so under on page 10 right um there are categories that

[11:26] we that we take a look at so supervisory control contr of person reports vehicle

[11:31] Chase packages crash reports and also if I'm correct there is another uh use of

[11:38] force preventable crash and also Internal Affairs investigation so if

[11:41] there is categories where the officer violates a policy or is found to have

[11:45] violated a policy and they fall within those categories within the year time

[11:49] span they get automatically attributed to the action review system so then

[11:53] they're provided additional training or additional uh you can say overseeing by

[11:59] the supervisor to make sure that there are preventative measures that are

[12:02] taking place so they don't repeat the same behaviors so we kind of help them

[12:06] to additional training monitoring uh coaching from their supervisor to have

[12:11] them not infract or not have policy violations within that time span so they

[12:16] kind of fall off while they continue to improve in their performance everyone

[12:21] should be very proud of this

[12:24] report he said everyone everyone should be proud of this report yeah

[12:29] yes job we have any other questions if I may add something which is a comment yes

[12:36] it is to congratulate not only the chief but the entire cor for the great job

[12:42] that they are doing within the community I've been following the chief and not

[12:46] Miami not Miami Police as well on social media I can testify what you are doing

[12:53] please keep doing it we feel definitely safer around here absolutely thank you

[13:00] thank [Applause]

[13:03] you I will follow that up and say that although I don't have consistent contact

[13:10] with police officers in the city the contact that I have is always positive

[13:15] they're always very professional I I think the city seems to have very high

[13:20] standards for training officers and a good sense of AE of core

[13:26] and I look forward to hearing good things to be at next year's officer of

[13:31] the Year Awards as I was this year uh Chief question please how many

[13:37] vacancies do we now have well as of last week we now have

[13:42] one vacancy we did have a police officer to leave the department uh in order to

[13:48] go to another local agency which happens and you were speaking about police

[13:53] officers I'm I just assumed police officers yes so we do have one vacancy

[13:58] at this time and we have five individuals in the

[14:01] police academy right now so we're looking forward to them graduating

[14:05] successfully so that they can join the department and hopefully they won't be

[14:10] grabbed off by somebody else yeah but it happens you know and so um just like

[14:16] most agencies Across the Nation retention and recruitment are an issue

[14:20] so um it's not just exclusive to us but you know departments Across the Nation

[14:25] are experiencing the same effect are those officers we've

[14:29] sponsored or are they paying for their own

[14:34] Academy we are sponsoring them yeah we are sponsoring them so we'll go and get

[14:39] them if they leave don't worry so that's an interesting question if we sponsor

[14:44] them through the academy is there an automatic contractual obligation to so

[14:49] there is a contractual obligation and that obligation is for you to remain

[14:53] with the department for two years in the event that you don't and we had a recent

[14:57] case um we do recoup try our best to recoup um the

[15:02] cost of the academy which is a little over

[15:05] $6,000 uh so we just recently had an experience like that I actually got some

[15:10] guidance from another police chief that was experiencing the same thing and what

[15:14] he explained was that when they attach to another agency is when we can

[15:17] actually you know demand send a demand letter for the tuition fees um so when

[15:23] that individual maybe a couple of months after he resigned went to join a local

[15:28] Department I did so and we are now in um we are in negotiations and have made a

[15:35] contract and he will be paying some of the money that we've already received so

[15:39] far so I don't want to understand why the department that he went to wouldn't

[15:43] be paying I mean that's the only proper respectful thing well he is not an

[15:48] employee of the department yet he is seeking employment with that department

[15:54] so I made contact with that police chief and you know informed him and send over

[15:58] the documents and so um as long as we are going to recoup the tuition I'm I'm

[16:04] good with that who pays yeah because in in most cases you

[16:08] know you lose the employee and you lose the ability to recoup the funds and it's

[16:13] good for us because then we can send someone else to the academy well that

[16:17] officer made a mistake yes yes this is a good place to

[16:22] be absolutely well thank you very much for

[16:26] that you thank you may I please you may Rose I am taking this opportunity to uh

[16:33] invite all the residents to the great training on artificial intelligence yes

[16:40] that the office I me the the the police officers are offering I went I saw and I

[16:46] can testify as well that it is a good training if every single one listening

[16:53] to this uh meeting uh can go and see for themselves what is it about it will be

[17:00] recommended sure so um and I can just elaborate a little bit is there is a

[17:06] program called clear view um that helps and AIDS us with investigations through

[17:11] artificial intelligence and facial recognition and so before we procure the

[17:17] the software fully we want to make sure that the community understands what it

[17:21] is we're doing um understands the policy that we're going to have that's going to

[17:25] be associated with and understand that there will be rules and regulations as

[17:30] far as how we utilize that technology so we just want to be open and transparent

[17:34] about what it is that we're going to do and yes thank you for attending the

[17:38] meeting uh we are able to demonstrate how it has been beneficial in some

[17:43] investigative cases that we've had well before the state rules us out of

[17:48] business perhaps we could have the department schedule an agenda item to

[17:55] make those explanations form before the CIB could we can do that could that be

[18:02] done we can all right let's go ahead and put that in play since we're obviously

[18:08] carried on the local cable tap Network this would be a good opportunity to put

[18:13] this out to a broader range of citizenry that happen to watch these programs sure

[18:19] uh and Dr Harris if you could arrange with the chief to schedule an

[18:23] appropriate time before we are uh rendered passay by our illustrious in

[18:29] ever seeeing big brother up in Tallahassee

[18:33] and I shall refrain from further commentary on that but uh I

[18:40] think uh getting the presentations made on the record here would be a positive

[18:45] thing we can definitely arrange it that's very good thank you Chief we

[18:50] appreciate your courtesy thank you major it's very nice to have you with us wish

[18:55] you every success in this department and hope you'll be with us for many many

[19:00] many many many many years thank you thank you for coming

[19:06] here my fan mail is going to dry up if we cease to

[19:13] exist all right uh do we have any unfinished business no all right do we

[19:19] have any public comment and I I don't see any public is is there any uh

[19:24] Communications from the public to we right into the record none no all right

[19:28] good of the order do we have any pertinent issues any members sick or in

[19:34] distress none very none in which case the chair will call for motion to

[19:41] adjourn motion to ajour all right motion made by Rose seconded

[19:46] by Rabbi Lang thank you all in favor all we are Reed that's a

Citizens Investigative Board Meeting - 02/26/2024

Transcript