Miami Beach Police and city officials are trying to clamp down on violent crime that has spiked in the city in recent weeks.
“We have too many people not doing the right thing,” said Commissioner Mark Samuelian, who had a virtual town hall meeting last week with Police Chief Richard Clements, city staff and residents.
This comes just in time for the long President’s Day weekend and the upcoming Spring Break season, which always brings problems to the Beach with troublemakers that come from out of town, said Clements, who took over the department in the summer of 2019.
“An overwhelming number of people who are coming here are coming here from other areas, other states… and they’re pushing the limits, if you will,” said Clements, who was blasted last year by the NAACP, which demanded his resignation after police scuffles with mostly black Spring Breakers.
Vacations have been cancelled so the city could make staffing changes to schedule more officers in the problem areas. They more than doubled the number of officers in the Art Deco district, taking officers out of the detectives’ bureau, crime suppression, narcotics and the robbery division to put them on the street. The chief has also gotten Miami-Dade Police and the region’s multi-agency anti-gang task force to lend a hand.
Last weekend, there were more than 100 arrests, Clements said, adding that there have been more than 400 arrests over 60 days.
“Every weekend there was a different cast of characters coming in to the Art Deco Business District,” he said. “We made headway. We thought we were doing well. But we recognize that we have more work to be done.
“What happened two weeks ago only proves we have more work to be done,” Clements said, referring to the Jan. 31 shooting outside The Licking Restaurant on Washington Avenue, where three people were hospitalized. Police are still searching for the gunman.
Then there was the woman who stabbed another woman with a pair of scissors in the middle of the street. She’s been arrested.
On Wednesday, police arrested four people who got into a fight outside the Licking, where the shooting occurred two weeks ago, and on Thursday a man jumped over the counter at a South Beach hotel and beat up the employee at the front desk. Police released a video over the weekend.
“The problem that we have is that we aren’t policing the same people,” Clements said. “Every weekend it’s a different person from a different part of the country with a different mindset than what we have.”
On Friday night, police met with members of the city’s Police Citizens Relations Committee in the entertainment district to show them the challenges they face.
Several residents have suggested having beat cops who regularly walk the neighborhoods.
“Is there a reason why a pair of police officers could not be stationed every three blocks on Collins and Washington from 5th to 16th [streets],” said David Harleston, who said he saw no police between 5th and 16th on Collins on a recent afternoon.
“Rather than worrying about response times, there is more of a priority to proactively preventing these events from happening,” Harleston said. “The primary issue for many of us is violence. It’s gun violence. It’s stabbings. It’s violence.”
The chief said he would like to put more officers on the street but that he didn’t have the resources. That said, the city is increasing both the foot patrols and the bicycle patrols.
Matthew Gultanoff said he had concerns about increased police spending to do this. “I don’t want to be a virtual prisoner in my own city. We must focus on long term solutions — land use, zoning and regulations.”
Joseph Magazine agreed that more needs to be done on the policy side and complained about an “overabundance of cheap hotel rooms” in the Art Deco district. “We like the idea of Art Deco but a majority of that are hotels that are driving prices down and on top of that we don’t have an adequate housing supply,” Magazine said.
Samuelian mentioned that the city, which has already prohibited the use of scooters after 7 p.m., could “raise the bar” on sidewalk cafes to curb bad behavior. “Some folks who have had permits may not receive permits in the future,” he warned.
Irene Bigger said the city has to look beyond sidewalk cafes and bars. “There are vape shops that have been involved in illegal activity,” she said, adding that the city needs to crack down harder on the party vehicles.
And nobody wants to put cars back on Ocean Drive. Some even like the idea of closing more streets.
Ken Manley, a former city official in a resort community “with a similar problem” suggested that they go the same route: “We got lots of police funded by a special police millage,” he said, adding that people will be glad to pay for more taxes if they know it’s going directly to public safety.
“We can also tax hotels and restaurants,” Manley said. “Lots of cops do deter crime.”
Blake Young, a perennial candidate who intends to run Group 1 this November suggested more town halls like Monday’s.
“We need to stop the bull and put more police on the streets. If it cost us more, it does. It’s saving lives,” Blake said. “There are a lot of people getting hurt, businesses getting hurt.”
Miami Beach braces for long weekend, Spring Break after burst of violence added by Ladra on
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