[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