The ninth and final question at the January 31 Candidates’ Forum was about strategies for addressing theft in Surfside. Because my name comes last, alphabetically, among the candidates’, I got to give the very first answer to this question.
In my answer, I broadened the topic and discussed some bigger-picture improvements that I would like to see in the policing of our Town. The question was about theft, though, so I’ll start my answer there, just as I started my answer at the Forum….
Being able to trust that your bikes, scooters, and Amazon packages are safe is part of what makes Surfside such a great place to live. But even in communities like ours, where theft is relatively rare, theft is always a big deal to the victim. The loss to the victim’s peace of mind can weigh more heavily than the merely financial loss from the theft itself.
After the Candidates’ Forum, I checked the crime statistics on our Town website, and it does appear that we’ve seen a spike in thefts lately. In November 2023 and then again in December 2023, we had 11 “petty” thefts per month (listed here under the category of “Part II” crimes). Those are the highest monthly totals in at least two years. (The only other month in that period that comes close is January 2022, with 10.)
The number of petty thefts did come back down in January 2024, to just 4. But the two-month spike that we saw in late 2023 is still concerning, and we want to make sure that it doesn’t become a permanent trend.
I think that the best way to address the problem of theft is with police patrols that are frequent, friendly, and human-scaled. And this kind of patrolling has a major add-on benefit as well–It fosters friendly connections between our police officers and our community.
When I was growing up in Surfside in the 1980s, we had patrols like that: Officers rode around in sedans, usually with the windows rolled down. They also used to hand out Miami Dolphins trading cards to the neighborhood kids–a gesture that helped reinforce a friendly, trusting relationship between residents and the police.
That model of policing made a big impression on me, and I’ve been urging the current Commission to adopt something similar to that approach from almost 40 years ago.
Here is a clip of me advocating just that at the Commission meeting on November 15, 2022:
Watching that clip again makes me wonder: Has anybody else had the experience I talked about there? The experience of walking past a parked police SUV with tinted windows, waving hello at the SUV and wondering whether there’s even anybody inside?
Anyway, at the recent Candidates’ Forum, in my answer to the question about theft, I repeated a lot of the points I’ve been making since that Commission meeting almost a year and a half ago. In both venues, I mentioned the conversation I’d had with our former Chief of Police, Rogelio Torres, when he was first hired in February of 2022, about bringing a bike patrol to Surfside’s residential neighborhood.
And, you know what, under Chief Torres, Surfside did have that bike patrol!
(Spoiler: It didn’t last very long, though….)
That long history–the SPD’s Dolphins trading cards back in 1984 (or so), my conversations with Chief Torres in February of 2022, and my comments to the Commission in November of 2022– explains why I rolled my eyes last week when I got this e-mail from my opponent, Mr. Rose, expressing his own support for an SPD bike patrol:
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that Mr. Rose and I agree on this point. But that agreement actually raises some difficult questions for Mr. Rose….
You see, when a non-incumbent candidate like me shares ideas for change, that’s one thing. When an incumbent like Mr. Rose shares those same ideas, though, you have to ask, “Well, why haven’t you implemented those ideas already, since you’re the one in office?”
In the case of the bike patrols–and other human-scaled policing techniques that deter theft and build a sense of community–I’ve brought that issue before the Commission on several occasions, and Mr. Rose has simply ignored my suggestions. (So, too, have Mr. Danzinger and Mr. Landsman.) That’s why, when Mr. Rose promotes this idea now, in February 2024, his words ring hollow to me.
And it’s not just that! Remember those bike patrols that Chief Torres instituted? Well, less than one month after I gave my comments at the November 2022 Commission meeting, Chief Torres was forced to resign, during that 24-hour firing spree that also got rid of our Town Manager, Andy Hyatt, and our Assistant Town Manager, Jason Greene.
It’s been more than a year now since those forced resignations, and we, the residents of Surfside, still haven’t gotten any explanation of why these three excellent public servants all got the axe. In all that time, Mr. Rose and another incumbent-opponent of mine, Mr. Landsman, have never publicly asked the new Town Manager, Hector Gomez, why he pushed out Chief Torres and Mr. Greene.
You know what else? I haven’t seen a single officer on a bike since Chief Torres was fired! Have you?
I have to mention, too, that in the time since Chief Torres was forced to resign, we’ve had two new Police Chiefs, both of them promoted from inside the Surfside Police Department. (Chief Torres himself had been hired after an open job search that attracted candidates from far and wide.) Strangely, the current Commission–including Mr. Rose and Mr. Landsman–never asked the Town Manager to conduct an open job search for a new Chief.
And that’s a big part of the problem. When you don’t bring in new people from the outside, it’s hard to implement new ideas.
That’s something for you, the voter, to think about on March 19, or whenever you cast your vote. 😉
Oh, and by the way…
After the Candidates’ Forum, I went looking in an old drawer and found a bunch of those trading cards. They bring back memories of that nice run the Dolphins had in the early 1980s, when they made it to two Super Bowls. And I’d totally forgotten about Dolfan Denny!
