Broward Sheriff’s Office loses its accreditation

**WillBrink** · 07-01-19, 15:09

Wow, talk about a vote of no confidence by fellow LE, let FL largest Sheriff’s Office know they don't have any confidence in that PD and revoked their accreditation. Apparently that will not impact day to day operations, but has potentially serious implications for the PD. Credit where credit is due, slow as it may seem, the chips are falling around that PD and others in LE etc, not sweeping this one under the rug so to speak. Too little too late? I don't know, but other than a few complete idiots who blame the AR alone, everyone else seems to recognize what an utter and complete failure was the top to the bottom of that PD and they're starting to drop the hammer where ever they can:

A state panel has voted unanimously to revoke the law enforcement accreditation of the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the largest sheriff’s office in Florida.

The loss of accreditation — a voluntary certification sought by law enforcement agencies — won’t affect BSO’s operations in a major way. But it is a further blow to the agency’s prestige at a time when a new command staff, including a new sheriff, are dealing with a string of failures and questionable conduct by deputies.

The Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation (CFA) cited BSO’s mishandling of the Parkland school shooting last year and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport shooting in 2017 as reasons for its decision in a 13-0 vote last week.

Both incidents were marked by chaotic and disorganized responses from the sheriff’s office. Seventeen people died at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on Feb. 14, 2018, including some who were waiting for rescue as BSO deputies took cover, put on body armor and struggled to find the building where the massacre had taken place. Then-Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, a Democrat, defended his agency but was suspended from office by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Accreditation allows agencies to standardize their practices and make sure they meet widely accepted guidelines. Accreditation can also help buttress agencies in defending themselves against lawsuits as it shows their procedures have been validated by outside experts, as well as lower their insurance rates. In Florida, there are more than 200 standards that an agency must meet to to maintain accreditation.

BSO was initially reviewed by a CFA assessment team in mid-December of 2018 and again in May 2019 after the release of a scathing state investigation into BSO’s performance at Stoneman Douglas. The team found that BSO was in compliance with state standards and recommended that BSO be “favorably reviewed” by the CFA panel, according to documents reviewed by the Miami Herald.

But the commission — a governing body made up of sheriffs, police chiefs and other high-ranking officials from across the state — voted to set aside that recommendation. Instead, it revoked BSO’s law enforcement accreditation based on its handling of the two major casualty incidents within its jurisdiction.

At the meeting in Orlando Wednesday, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay pointed out that agencies must prove not only that they have proper standards and regulations in place but that their personnel are following those rules.

“During the rating period of the time we’re talking in question here, there were substantial periods where they were not in compliance with how they performed in the field,” Ramsay said, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by the Herald. “As a result we saw the catastrophic loss of life and injuries and what transpired because of lack of following procedures and things in place.”

Another commission member added: “What happened this past year, the best practices were not exhibited on the day of that tragedy. There were multiple policy failures, training failures, leadership failures, equipment failures.”

Cont:

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/loc...32140297.html?

**SteyrAUG** · 07-01-19, 16:08

That is going to affect a lot of people. Back in the Ken Jenne days BSO gobbled up small PD's all over the county. Pompano Beach, Lighthouse Point, Parkland and about a dozen others were all taken over by BSO. This was in preparation for then Sheriff Ken Jenne to take over a newly created Strong Mayor position after showing he could manage a large municipality.

But lots of guys with decades serving PDs that were recently absorbed by BSO are going to have their service tainted to some extent. And this isn't a Scott Israel problem, this mentality began with Ken Jenne who was later convicted of fraud and tax evasion following charges of money laundering and other corruption charges.

For the life of me I don't know why they didn't keep Lamberti in office, at least he was actually a career LEO who was trying to fix things. But when they brought Scott Israel in apparently it was business as usual...again.

Jenne changed to environment at BSO directing deputies to under report crime, to not generate a case file number whenever possible and to downgrade the nature of crimes for reporting purposes. Anything and everything was done to make it look like Jenne was effectively lowering the crime rate. That atmosphere changed the mentality of most people who worked for BSO and it carried right over to the Ft. Lauderdale airport and Parkland events because it was still business as usual under Scott Israel.

I know more than a few guys who left BSO to work for other PDs that BSO was unlikely to absorb even though it meant selling their house after the crash and buying a home elsewhere that they couldn't really afford. I know a handful who left law enforcement completely because they didn't have enough years to get hired anyplace else.

**Firefly** · 07-01-19, 16:10

Another false protector rejected

**Arik** · 07-01-19, 18:51

What exactly is accreditation. What's it do?

**Firefly** · 07-01-19, 19:04

Originally Posted by Arik

What exactly is accreditation. What's it do?

Honestly nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Its like CALEA. There will always be a Sheriffs office because it is constitutionally mandated. They can remove a sheriff and everyone from top down at the state level.

The long and short of it is they are not part of the “club”. It has no bearing on arrest powers, custodial detention, nor court operations.

It’s like basically “we think you suck, you can’t sit at our lunch table, but we can’t keep you from coming to school”

Now they CAN shut down a police department but depending on size it’s literally firing everyone they don’t like and starting over.

**WillBrink** · 07-01-19, 19:17

Originally Posted by Arik

What exactly is accreditation. What's it do?

Article gives some info on that.

**WillBrink** · 07-01-19, 19:18

Originally Posted by SteyrAUG

That is going to affect a lot of people. Back in the Ken Jenne days BSO gobbled up small PD's all over the county. Pompano Beach, Lighthouse Point, Parkland and about a dozen others were all taken over by BSO. This was in preparation for then Sheriff Ken Jenne to take over a newly created Strong Mayor position after showing he could manage a large municipality.

But lots of guys with decades serving PDs that were recently absorbed by BSO are going to have their service tainted to some extent. And this isn't a Scott Israel problem, this mentality began with Ken Jenne who was later convicted of fraud and tax evasion following charges of money laundering and other corruption charges.

For the life of me I don't know why they didn't keep Lamberti in office, at least he was actually a career LEO who was trying to fix things. But when they brought Scott Israel in apparently it was business as usual...again.

Jenne changed to environment at BSO directing deputies to under report crime, to not generate a case file number whenever possible and to downgrade the nature of crimes for reporting purposes. Anything and everything was done to make it look like Jenne was effectively lowering the crime rate. That atmosphere changed the mentality of most people who worked for BSO and it carried right over to the Ft. Lauderdale airport and Parkland events because it was still business as usual under Scott Israel.

I know more than a few guys who left BSO to work for other PDs that BSO was unlikely to absorb even though it meant selling their house after the crash and buying a home elsewhere that they couldn't really afford. I know a handful who left law enforcement completely because they didn't have enough years to get hired anyplace else.

You may have answered your own Q with that one statement!