CBS4 Exclusive: Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina Responds To Black Police Union's Call For His Ouster
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Miami's top cop is fighting back just days after the black police union calls for his ouster.
In an exclusive interview with CBS4's Peter D'Oench, Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina is speaking out on camera for the first time since Friday when the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association said they had a vote of no confidence and said that Colina had displayed a lack of leadership.
"It was surprising to me and off course disappointing," said Colina. "I had no idea that they felt the way they did and I had met with THE MCPBA 6, 7, 8, 9 times. I thought I had always addressed their concerns."
"I was blindsided and it is stunning," said Colina, who was sworn in as Police Chief on Jan. 26th of 2018 and who started his career with Miami POlice in 1990 and who says he has always tried to do the right thing.
The MCPBA represents predominantly African American Officers. MCPBA President Stanley Jean-Poix said on Friday, "We would like to conduct a nationwide search for police chief. We are requesting that a full investigation be held at the department in regard to a hostile work environment and discriminatory practices."
MCPBA Vice President Ramon Carr said, "What we want is to see other African American males promoted and to be placed in areas they are not normally placed at. You can place us in Brickell, you can put us in the upper east, you can put us in different places that are not your typical places."
"One of the things they wanted to see is more black executive officers," said Colina. "I pointed out to them we had quite a few but they were very explicit about the fact that they wanted them to be black men. You know I am not happy about that. I'll give you an example. Right now we have 9 black staff members out of an executive staff of 32 or 33. Six are women and three are men. That's the truth. There are more women than men. I don't know why that's a problem."
"Ten years ago we had 7 black staff members so we have more now and six of them were men and one was a woman. Nobody batted an eye or complained about that," said Colina.
"Right now the police department has an extraordinary number of women of color who are extraordinarily talented and who are very qualified and who work very hard and they perform at an exceptional level and I don't see why we should ignore them. We match the demographics. The city of Miami is 19 percent black and the police department is 26 percent black so we are diversified. I think if the numbers were inverted if we had six men and three women, would that be ok?"
"In the last 11 months I have promoted five people to the executive staff," said Colina. "Of those five, 4 of them are black."
"This is shocking with the amount of accolades and recognition we have had as a department," said Colina, "and people are displeased."
"We just received an award that I went to on Friday," said Colina. "We were the only department in the state of Florida that has a triple accreditation. We are 1 out of 20 in the world and one of only 18 in the country. Our training bureau just came out number two in the state of Florida. We are safer than we have ever been."
"I saw when I watched the news on Channel 4 and there was a direct quote that you can put us in any one of the places like Brickell and the upper east side, well the Commander in Brickell is black," he said.
"As far as a hostile work environment is concerned, if anyone wants to make a complaint that can be filed at the administrative building so it can be investigated independently. If anyone is doing anything wrong here, we hold everyone accountable. In the last year and 9 months, we have dismissed 35 people from the police department. That's 35 arrested or fired employes."
Colina said he is devoted to his dream job.
"For me, it is an incredible opportunity to do things that I saw while growing up," he said. "I saw a lot of things that I needed to do in the police department and I have that opportunity and it is very important to me. The city of Miami gave me this opportunity to keep people safe and I take that very seriously," said Colina.
He said "I can tell you this. I put my heart and my soul into this job every day and I work as hard as I can. If someone has been wronged I want to make sure I protect that."
"I am not afraid to admit that I make mistakes," he said. "We have a department of 1800 people. There are bound to be people here who misbehave and we will deal with that appropriately. Again. I want to say that we have many competent females who work here. If somebody is uncomfortable with that then I think they need to get used to that because we are not going to change that."
Colina told D'Oench that he has received many calls of support.
A spokesman said Mayor Francis Suarez is not commenting about what the MCPBA is calling for but Suarez has said in the past that he has a great deal of respect for the Police Chief and for the work he has done including curbing crime and he noted that the city's homicide rate is at a "51-year low."
A spokeswoman also told CBS4 that Colina has the full support of the City Manager.
