In the past 5 years the Justice Department has opened 20 investigations into local police departments
WASHINGTON (CNN) -
New reports about four police officers in Fort Lauderdale exchanging racially offensive text messages and a video that showed President Barack Obama with gold teeth could prove to be the latest test for how the Justice Department polices the nation's local law enforcement agencies.
In the past five years the Justice Department has opened 20 investigations into local police departments -- more than twice as many investigations than were opened in the previous five years, according to the department.
A Justice Department spokesperson says the majority of law enforcement agencies the department investigates agree to work with the department to correct patterns of officer misconduct -- but when an agency refuses to correct the problems the Justice Department files suit against the agency.
Right now the Justice Department has suits pending against local law enforcement agencies in four jurisdictions -- Maricopa, Arizona; Alamance, North Carolina; Colorado City, Arizona; and Meridian, Alabama.
In the case of the Fort Lauderdale officers -- Jason Holding, James Wells and Christopher Sousa were fired and the fourth officer, Alex Alvarez, resigned.
The officers used racially derogatory terms to refer to people they encountered while on duty and talked about "killing n******," according to investigative documents.
An official with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division tells CNN, "The department is monitoring the local investigation."
Late Wednesday afternoon Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein -- who defends low-income residents in Ft. Lauderdale -- sent a letter to the Justice Department calling for a civil rights investigation into the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
Finkelstein wrote, "I do not believe the Fort Lauderdale Police Department conducted a full investigation. Its investigation was intentionally limited in order to protect the department."
Finkelstein said he asked the Justice Department to investigate the same police department seven months ago and nothing happened.
In Wednesday's letter he wrote, "I wrote to your department on August 29, 2014 requesting an investigation into egregious discriminatory and race-based police practices utilized by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. I received no response."
The public defender also said his office is now reviewing all 52 pending cases that are still open and involve any of the four police officers -- as well as all 126 closed cases that involved any of the four officers from the last two years.
"We are looking for cases in which the defendants were black males and where the stop is sketchy or the defendant says the officer called them bad names or assaulted them," Finkelstein told CNN.
He said the fact that the four officers "not only felt comfortable enough to put their racist comments in writing, but to also make a movie about it, tells me there is a racist subculture in that department." Finkelstein says he believes the problem goes much deeper than those four officers.
"We're not shocked by those officers' racist attitudes, we're just shocked they were stupid enough to make a movie about it," said Finkelstein. "Stupid knows no bounds within the Fort Lauderdale Police Department."
Fort Lauderdale Police Department for reaction to the public defender's letter to the Justice Department.
http://www.news4jax.com/politics/doj-targets-racism-in-police-forces/32024384
Fort Lauderdale officials wrongly issue permits for 2 building developments, OIG reports
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -
Former employees of the city of Fort Lauderdale's Building Services Division wrongly issued permits for two building developments, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Broward Office of the Inspector General.
The buildings named in the report are Northwest Gardens and The Pearl.
The OIG also found that former BSD structural plans reviewer Glen Osborn approved faulty plans and later signed certificates of occupancy knowing that the buildings were not in compliance.
"He admitted that he knew it was not appropriate," said Inspector General John Scott. "When we asked why, he said, 'What do you think, we're going to tear the buildings down?'"
In the case of The Pearl, the OIG determined that four of its five buildings "also failed to comply with flood zone requirements."
The OIG reported that numerous city officials admitted to making mistakes in the application and enforcement of the Florida building code.
According to the OIG, city manager Lee Feldman said, "I'm not saying we have clean hands here" and that "issues should have been caught."
Feldman released a letter to Scott on the city's website Wednesday that listed "important remedial actions taken by the city of which your report denotes several."
"There are, in fact, requirements for buildings that are going to be in flood hazard areas," said Scott. "We found Fort Lauderdale failed to enforce the building code in those areas."
"Why would the city mess up so badly?" asked Local 10's Bob Norman.
"Well, you know, what we found these regulations were overlooked," Scott said.
The investigation was sparked by a Local 10 report that exposed the problem last year at Northwest Gardens, a $58 million housing authority project, and the private Edge development on Federal Highway, and it found at least one city official willfully ignored federal regulations when approving them.
The Edge development, which is renting out apartments now, was built a full foot beneath federal flood elevation standards.
"That was wrong to do and we've put in systems in place to make sure that doesn't happen again," said Feldman.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation is reviewing the OIG's report.
Follow Local 10 News on Twitter @WPLGLocal10
http://www.local10.com/news/fort-lauderdale-officials-wrongly-issue-permits-for-2-building-developments-oig-reports/32002884
Florida may promote 3rd graders who fail standardized tests - Wink News
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Amid continued backlash over Florida's testing regimen, the state may stop holding back third grade students who fail the state's standardized tests.
If Florida lawmakers agree to the change, it would mark a major departure from a policy pushed into law by then-Gov. Jeb Bush who decried "social promotion" when he campaigned for governor. Bush vowed to end the practice as part of his A+ education law enacted in 1999. The law tied promotion to the fourth grade to how students did on a standardized reading test.
A Senate panel on Wednesday voted in favor of suspending the policy until the state's new standardized test is independently validated. The test is based heavily on Common Core standards and a rollout this month of an online version for middle and high school students has been marred by technical glitches.
The vote on Wednesday came after a sharp debate, where both Democratic and some Republican legislators, argued that the state's heavy reliance on the high-stakes test has gotten out of control. The Florida Legislature is considering bills that would roll back some testing requirements.
"I think if we're all honest with the people of Florida we would admit right now we have a train wreck on our hands with our educational system," said Sen. Alan Hays, a Republican from Umatilla.
Hays on Wednesday tried to get the Senate Appropriations Committee to halt school grades as well as all other requirements tied to the tests until an in-depth review was conducted. He also wanted to verify that school districts are capable of giving the tests online.
Bush has been touting his education policies as he prepares for a likely presidential bid that is supported by many of Florida's top elected Republicans, including the two leaders of the Legislature. Bush did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Florida expanded the use of standardized testing under Bush's plan to grade schools. The A to F grades were used to offer rewards and impose sanctions. Students who failed the tests could be held back in third grade or not allowed to graduate from high school.
Patricia Levesque, executive director of the Foundation for Florida's Future, a group started by Bush, contended that the policy of holding back third graders has been a success.
"For more than a decade, Florida has placed a command focus on reading through early identification, intervention and retention as a last resort," Levesque said in a statement. "The results have been transformative: our students outperformed the national average in every subgroup for fourth grade reading on the most recent Nation's Report Card."
The number of required tests has grown over the last decade and they also took on more importance as they became part of the measurements used to evaluate teachers.
Legislators entered this year's session promising to rein in the number of tests after hearing complaints from parents, students and school officials.
The Florida House has already passed a bill that scales back and eliminates some tests including one required of 11th graders. But the measure does not include the same provisions as the Senate legislation. GOP legislators in the House have also rejected changes pushed by Democrats, including one that calls for suspending the school-grading system as the state transitions to its new set of tests.
The panel - which makes up nearly half of the 40-member Senate -instead agreed to a compromise that would suspend the third grade retention policy until the test is validated. A policy requiring 10th graders to pass the test for graduation would also be suspended. Sen. John Legg, a sponsor of the testing bill, said there would be no way to validate the test in time for when schools must decide whether to hold students back.
Legg, however, pointed out that parents would still be told if a student did poorly on the reading test.
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNHRLsiyeY0ztfOSUHA7RY3rWawUYw&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52778784854251&ei=dyoVVYmyJuaViwb9mYCgCA&url=http://www.winknews.com/2015/03/26/florida-may-promote-3rd-graders-who-fail-standardized-tests/
Fort Lauderdale officials wrongly issue permits for 2 building developments, OIG reports
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -
Former employees of the city of Fort Lauderdale's Building Services Division wrongly issued permits for two building developments, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Broward Office of the Inspector General.
The buildings named in the report are Northwest Gardens and The Pearl.
The OIG found that in the case of Northwest Gardens, "the BSD approved permits and issued 10 certificates of occupancy for apartment buildings despite the fact that they were in violation of the Florida building bode's flood zone requirements."
The OIG also found that former BSD structural plans reviewer Glen Osborn approved faulty plans and later signed certificates of occupancy knowing that the buildings were not in compliance.
"He admitted that he knew it was not appropriate," said Inspector General John Scott. "When we asked why, he said, 'What do you think, we're going to tear the buildings down?'"
In the case of The Pearl, the OIG determined that four of its five buildings "also failed to comply with flood zone requirements."
The OIG reported that numerous city officials admitted to making mistakes in the application and enforcement of the Florida building code.
According to the OIG, city manager Lee Feldman said, "I'm not saying we have clean hands here" and that "issues should have been caught."
Feldman released a letter to Scott on the city's website Wednesday that listed "important remedial actions taken by the city of which your report denotes several."
"There are, in fact, requirements for buildings that are going to be in flood hazard areas," said Scott. "We found Fort Lauderdale failed to enforce the building code in those areas."
"Why would the city mess up so badly?" asked Local 10's Bob Norman.
"Well, you know, what we found these regulations were overlooked," Scott said.
The investigation was sparked by a Local 10 report that exposed the problem last year at Northwest Gardens, a $58 million housing authority project, and the private Edge development on Federal Highway, and it found at least one city official willfully ignored federal regulations when approving them.
The Edge development, which is renting out apartments now, was built a full foot beneath federal flood elevation standards.
"That was wrong to do and we've put in systems in place to make sure that doesn't happen again," said Feldman.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation is reviewing the OIG's report.
Follow Local 10 News on Twitter @WPLGLocal10
http://www.local10.com/news/fort-lauderdale-officials-wrongly-issue-permits-for-2-building-developments-oig-reports/32002884
Florida may promote 3rd graders who fail standardized tests - Wink News
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Amid continued backlash over Florida's testing regimen, the state may stop holding back third grade students who fail the state's standardized tests.
If Florida lawmakers agree to the change, it would mark a major departure from a policy pushed into law by then-Gov. Jeb Bush who decried "social promotion" when he campaigned for governor. Bush vowed to end the practice as part of his A+ education law enacted in 1999. The law tied promotion to the fourth grade to how students did on a standardized reading test.
A Senate panel on Wednesday voted in favor of suspending the policy until the state's new standardized test is independently validated. The test is based heavily on Common Core standards and a rollout this month of an online version for middle and high school students has been marred by technical glitches.
The vote on Wednesday came after a sharp debate, where both Democratic and some Republican legislators, argued that the state's heavy reliance on the high-stakes test has gotten out of control. The Florida Legislature is considering bills that would roll back some testing requirements.
"I think if we're all honest with the people of Florida we would admit right now we have a train wreck on our hands with our educational system," said Sen. Alan Hays, a Republican from Umatilla.
Hays on Wednesday tried to get the Senate Appropriations Committee to halt school grades as well as all other requirements tied to the tests until an in-depth review was conducted. He also wanted to verify that school districts are capable of giving the tests online.
Bush has been touting his education policies as he prepares for a likely presidential bid that is supported by many of Florida's top elected Republicans, including the two leaders of the Legislature. Bush did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Florida expanded the use of standardized testing under Bush's plan to grade schools. The A to F grades were used to offer rewards and impose sanctions. Students who failed the tests could be held back in third grade or not allowed to graduate from high school.
Patricia Levesque, executive director of the Foundation for Florida's Future, a group started by Bush, contended that the policy of holding back third graders has been a success.
"For more than a decade, Florida has placed a command focus on reading through early identification, intervention and retention as a last resort," Levesque said in a statement. "The results have been transformative: our students outperformed the national average in every subgroup for fourth grade reading on the most recent Nation's Report Card."
The number of required tests has grown over the last decade and they also took on more importance as they became part of the measurements used to evaluate teachers.
Legislators entered this year's session promising to rein in the number of tests after hearing complaints from parents, students and school officials.
The Florida House has already passed a bill that scales back and eliminates some tests including one required of 11th graders. But the measure does not include the same provisions as the Senate legislation. GOP legislators in the House have also rejected changes pushed by Democrats, including one that calls for suspending the school-grading system as the state transitions to its new set of tests.
The panel - which makes up nearly half of the 40-member Senate -instead agreed to a compromise that would suspend the third grade retention policy until the test is validated. A policy requiring 10th graders to pass the test for graduation would also be suspended. Sen. John Legg, a sponsor of the testing bill, said there would be no way to validate the test in time for when schools must decide whether to hold students back.
Legg, however, pointed out that parents would still be told if a student did poorly on the reading test.
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNHRLsiyeY0ztfOSUHA7RY3rWawUYw&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52778784854251&ei=MZUUVaD6NbP6iga1rICoBg&url=http://www.winknews.com/2015/03/26/florida-may-promote-3rd-graders-who-fail-standardized-tests/
Tourist Pistol Whipped and Robbed in Miami Beach - NBC 6 South Florida
Miami Beach Police are looking for a suspect who pistol whipped and robbed a German tourist. (Published Monday, Mar 9, 2015)
Miami Beach Police are searching for an armed robber who pistol whipped a German tourist and stole her purse.
The assault happened in the 3100 block of Collins Avenue early Monday morning as the tourist was approaching her hotel, police say. A man, who had gotten off at a nearby bus stop, demanded that she hand over her purse and she refused.
Christina Schulz said she and her friend were walking back to the Riu Hotel when they felt a man behind them.
"He had a mask around his mouth," Schulz said. "He had a gun and he wants to have my bag and he hit me and I fall on the floor and hit me with a gun on my head."
Miami Beach Police are investigating after a tourist was pistol whipped and robbed. (Published Monday, Mar 9, 2015)
Detectives said the woman held on to the purse until it began to tear and that's when the assailant struck her with the firearm over the head. The woman was knocked to the ground and the assailant got away with her cell phone, credit cards and other valuables.
Miami Beach Police Chief Dan Oates said the search is on to find the attacker. He also said that this unfortunate crime is a reminder that visitors need to be aware of their surroundings, especially during what is a busy time in the South Florida tourist season.
The chief said when compared to last year robberies are actually down 11 persent on Miami Beach, with crime, overall, down about three percent.
Detectives said the man police are looking for is a black male with dreadlocks who was wearing jeans and a green hoodie. Detectives have reached out to Miami-Dade Transit to see if they have a good image of him getting off that bus.
Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
Published at 6:51 PM EDT on Mar 9, 2015
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNFCODl8RNt-yLupdqQIkcJpo-RyEQ&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52778765454106&ei=B97-VNj3FI7H1gaIz4CQBQ&url=http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Tourist-Pistol-Whipped-and-Robbed-in-Miami-Beach-295680511.html
