MIAMI – In March, when Miami Mayor Francis Suarez revealed the city would be hiring Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo to lead its police ...
MIAMI – In March, when Miami Mayor Francis Suarez revealed the city would be hiring Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo to lead its police department, Mr. Suarez told the local newspaper that hiring was “like getting the Tom Brady or the Michael Jordan of police chiefs.”
His star choice lasted barely six months.
Miami officials said on Monday they decided to suspend Chief Acevedo with the intention of firing him, showing him the door after a controversial tenure in which he clashed with powerful commissioners-elect who exposed their grievances against him. in a series of meetings at the town hall which often turned into a spectacle.
“The relationship between the leader and the organization became untenable and needed to be resolved quickly,” Art Noriega, the city manager, said in a statement. “The relationship between employers and employees boils down to the suitability and style of leadership and unfortunately Chief Acevedo is not the right fit for this organization. “
Chief Acevedo made a series of decisions and comments that infuriated commissioners, including firing or demoting several of the department’s senior officials, investigating a town hall sergeant-at-arms and posing for a selfie at a pro-Cuban democracy protest with a prominent member of the Proud Boys, whom the leader said he did not know.
The chief also said that the police department was run by a “Cuban mafia” – like a joke, he said – and then compared the reaction of the commissioners to his actions to the “repressive regime and the state. policeman ”from Communist Cuba. The majority of the commissioners are Cuban-American, as is Chief Acevedo, although he grew up in California, not in the Cuban exile stronghold of South Florida.
Mr. Noriega initially asked Chief Acevedo to submit some sort of improvement plan, which the Chief did. But at least one city commissioner said the measure was insufficient. It had been clear for weeks that Chief Acevedo had never wowed the commissioners, who had been taken aback by his surprise hiring. Mr. Noriega did not strongly defend Chief Acevedo before the committee during its meetings. Mr. Suarez did not show up at all.
Chief Acevedo has not spoken publicly as his tenure has collapsed in recent weeks, despite his outspokenness. (His national profile came in part from his frequent Twitter posts.) He thanked the ministry in a letter Monday night.
“It has been a privilege to serve with you and to fight for you,” he wrote, according to a copy of the letter. put online by WPLG, the local ABC News station.
Chief Acevedo had accused several city commissioners of inappropriately interfering with personnel decisions, and he did not shy away from that position in his memo.
“I promise to continue to fight the good fight to rid MPD of political interference from the town hall which unfortunately continues to have a negative impact on this organization,” he wrote.
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