36 Miami cops to be punished for speeding; officer who led state
trooper on chase suspended
In the most sweeping crackdown on police
speeding yet, Miami's top cop announced on Monday that he is taking action
against 36 of his officers for driving off duty at speeds sometimes exceeding
100 mph.
The first wave of disciplinary action
includes South Florida's most notorious speeder in uniform, Officer Fausto
Lopez. The six-year police veteran is being suspended for a month and will lose
his take-home car for three months for leading a state trooper on a high-speed
chase through Broward County in October.
Lopez's headline-generating traffic stop
prompted a Sun Sentinel investigation that found widespread off-duty speeding
by officers at a dozen South Florida departments. All began internal
investigations.
The chief said he plans to fire one or
more officers identified by the newspaper as habitual speeders and is equipping
40 police vehicles with GPS devices to make sure the worst offenders slow down.
"The individuals that are in your report will be the first ones to get
them,'' Orosa said.
The Sun Sentinel's investigative series,
published in February, used SunPass toll records to determine how fast cops
were driving and found almost 800 hit speeds above 90 mph in a 13-month period.
Miami officers were among the worst speeders, driving up to 55 mph over the
speed limit outside city limits.
"For the most part, everything was
off duty,'' the chief said. "Everybody needs to understand — our police
officers — that unless you're at work and you have to speed to an emergency,
you're a regular citizen. Coming to and from work, you're expected to abide by
all the laws and do everything you're supposed to, like anybody else.''
The number of Miami cops being
disciplined in the speeding crackdown is the largest to date. The tally of
South Florida officers punished now stands at 94, including 31 Florida Highway
Patrol troopers, nine cops from Plantation, seven each in Sunrise and Margate,
and four from Davie.
Like the other agencies, Miami police
conducted their own investigation to verify the SunPass speeding incidents,
including measuring the distances between toll booths. Orosa described the
extent of the problem that emerged as a eye-opener for him.
"It keeps me wondering as to what
were they thinking when they were going over 80, 90 mph, day in and day out,''
he said. "That's really astonishing.''
Miami police internal affairs
investigators focused on a three-month period and developed a matrix for
punishment based on the number of violations. Discipline is being handed out in
three waves, starting with occasional speeders — one to three offenses — and
working up to the most egregious violators, dubbed by Orosa as "frequent
fliers.''
The first 10 already have been informed
of their punishment — from reprimands up to a two-week loss of their take-home
cars. Discipline will get progressively more severe, including "forfeiture
of hours'' with resulting loss of pay, and termination, the chief said.
The police department is withholding the
names of the officers affected until disciplinary proceedings are complete in
the next few weeks.
"So far, the officers seem to be
accepting responsibility,'' said Maj. Jorge Colina, who oversees internal affairs.
Lopez, the cop who brought on the
speeding scrutiny, for now is only being punished for the Oct. 11 highway
run-in with FHP Trooper Jane Watts. She followed the uniformed Lopez
onFlorida's Turnpikeas he drove his patrol car to a second job at speeds of
more than 100 mph.
The trooper pulled Lopez over at gunpoint
and handcuffed him. Video of the traffic stop went viral and provoked a feud
between Miami police and FHP.
Lopez, 36, was charged with misdemeanor
reckless driving. He pleaded no contest in Broward County court in April and
was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.
Lopez still faces departmental punishment
for habitually speeding on his commute between Miami and his home in Coconut
Creek.
The Sun Sentinel analysis of SunPass
records showed he regularly drove to and from work at speeds above 100 mph and
as fast as 120 mph in the year before he was pulled over. His lead foot made
him the most frequent speeder of all the police officers the newspaper
examined.
Asked if Lopez will lose his job over the
speeding, the police chief said, "Stay tuned.''
Lopez's attorneys could not be reached
for comment Monday.
Miami's police brass are hoping the
crackdown sends a message to all police officers that they are not above the
law.
"It can't be, 'Do as I say, not as I
do,' '' Colina said. "This is one of the things to show the public that
we're certainly going to do the right thing and we're going to hold our
officers accountable.''
Since becoming chief last fall, Orosa has
instituted radar stings to catch speeders on his force. The number of violators
has dwindled.
Across Florida, at least 19 people,
including seven cops, have died in crashes caused by police speeding since
2004.
"We've been lucky,'' Orosa said.
"I would like it to remain that way, even if we have to enforce our own
rules on our own people.''