MIAMI LODGE

F R A T E R N A L thO R D E R O F P O L I C E
710 Southwest 12 Avenue. Miami, Florida 33130
Phone (305) 854-5019
Ortiz@fopmiami.com

Javier Ortiz

Thomas Reyes

PRESIDENT

SECRETARY

May 27, 2015

Re: MPD Backup, Slow Hiring, & Inadequate Support

Good afternoon FOP members:

Last week in crime ridden Little Havana, a subject aimed a semi-automatic pistol at one of our brothers
while conducting a consensual encounter. When he knocked on the door of the apartment, the subject
had someone hand him a firearm in which was pointed at our police officer. The officer shut the door to
provide some concealment. There were several subjects in the apartment. What he didn't know at the
time was that his backup was not readily available to him because he was on the other side of a locked
security gate.
An eight hour grueling manhunt ensued. Everyone is in custody with the exception of one suspect and
leads to take him down are being pursued. It was great to see everyone working together with one
common goal. We are lucky that one of our own did not get killed yesterday.
Special kudos to Lieutenant Eric Gonzalez and Lieutenant Jose Fernandez for their dedication at the
scene. K-9 Sergeant Wing and his team did an amazing job. Homicide Detective Sanchez had a search
warrant in what felt like a blink of an eye. The FOP went through six cases of water on this perimeter.
SWAT and the Hostage Negotiators were professional and on point. We also can't forget our dedicated
Miami Firefighters who were there on standby. Sergeant Tommy Reyes was initially the incident
commander and did a fine job.
With that said, there were some key points that we can all learn from this event:
1. Before taking any action, always ensure that you have your backup with you.
2. When someone calls for a 3-15, there is no reason to tie up the air that you are en-route. The
only time you need to get on is when you take a perimeter point. Unimportant chatter ties up
the air.
I am asking all supervisors to cancel anyone from a call that says they will "advise" when backup is not
available. There are a few reasons for this:
1. Canceling backup is against our departmental orders.
2. Not having backup could cost you your life.
3. If you are involved in a use of deadly force, expect the police department to say that you put
yourself in harms way.

4. The community will say that if your backup was there, you could have used less force. The last
thing you want is a civil disturbance named after you.
5. Canceling backup makes you more liable for civil liability.
We get paid to answer one call at a time safely. We are here to provide quality service to our community.
Advising on a call (whether its a 911 hang-up call that's been holding for two hours) can cost you your
career and even worse your life. If the police department is worried about calls holding, maybe the city
needs to wake up and make our benefits comparable to other agencies to be able to recruit more.
We are so backwards that we have certified officers that have been playing basketball for weeks
because they don't have police uniforms. A total of thirteen have been waiting around. Two in particular
have been waiting for police uniforms since last January. We are so slow in hiring (because out of a few
thousand applicants, very few are good enough to wear the badge) that the next police academy is being
delayed because they don't have enough people. My sources at Coral Gables state the City is
scrambling to try to put a makeshift academy class for July because they send their candidates to the
MPD academy (CGPD is paying their candidates to standby while they dont get trained because we
cant put a class together because we cant hire our own police recruits.). The latest statistics show we
have approximately one hundred and ten sworn vacancies.
The police department is planning to reconfigure and lower the amount of patrol officers and place more
in PST and BEATS. Why would they do that? Easy answer. First, you will not have set days off or shift
hours. They can use you for pet projects. By electing to be BEATS or PST, you have given up some of
your rights since you are now in a "specialized unit". In the meantime, there are less officers in patrol.
The police department plans to unveil that on average, a police officer handles two calls a day. Sounds
crazy doesn't it? We have no idea how they came up with this number. We wish they would review how
many calls are holding on each shift. The goal of this plan is to do the following:

Cut out overtime cost to make the city manager happy (while they sit on a projected $37 million
dollar surplus and think about lowering taxes).
To circumvent your rights (shift and days off) on your collective bargaining agreement.

Just to make this easier to understand, imagine a typical "person shot" call in Overtown. A perimeter
requires four people. You need at least one person to be at the actual incident. What happens with all
the other priority calls holding? This plan is reckless and puts officer safety at risk. BEATS and PST don't
have set hours and they can't be counted on since commanders have them on special projects.
Since the City is willing to intentionally lower the amount of officers in a patrol shift to save money and
endanger our safety, we must stand united. If the department rolls out with their current plan reorganizing
patrol, we will fight back in order to ensure that we get home at the end of your shift.
Back each other up and look out for being ambushed. We don't get paid to answer calls in a rush and not
safely. We are compensated to provide quality service.
#BACKEACHOTHERUP
Fraternally,

Javier Ortiz
Lieutenant Javier Ortiz, President
Miami Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #20

A Proud Tradition in Law Enforcement