Juan Zapata: West End has fewest cops per capita, needs more

Juan Zapata: West End has fewest cops per capita, needs more
  • Sumo

The West District of the Miami-Dade Police Department may be one of the biggestpolice cars geographically. It may be the most populated. It may have the second highest number of calls for police service.

But it is also the most understaffed when it comes to patrol officers.

That’s what Commissioner Juan Zapata says after he rode along with officers on Thanksgiving and did an analysis of the staffing per district.

The rapid population growth in the southwest part of Miami-Dade — otherwise known as West Kendall and South Dade — has outpaced the number of officers assigned to the area. The West District (formerly the Hammocks District) is by far the largest, serving a population of 329,656, according to Zapata’s office. Those lucky residents have one officer for every 1,852 them to share — a ratio that is the highest in the county.

The next largest district, which has about half of that population at 165,393 and had only about 3,200 more calls for service in 2014 than West District, has one officer for every 1,102 residents.

The Northside district, which has about 1,000 fewer calls and less than a third of the population than the police carsWest District, has four times as many officers per capita, with 487.

“The West District has been ignored,” Zapata told Ladra Wednesday. “The anecdotal information was there, but now we have real numbers that show the inequity. This data took a long time to get and the numbers don’t paint a pretty picture.”

Zapata has long been telling county administrators that West End taxpayers do not get the same bang for their buck. He has worried out loud that his constituents are donor constituents to the rest of the county.

“The MAC study shows how the area contributes $9 million more than it gets in services and this is the main reason,” Zap said Wednesday. “I have been asking the police director and mayor for the methodology in how new police allocations are going to happen and have yet to hear anything. This shows that based on call volume, staffing rations, crime stats… all the indicators call for the West District to have a significant increase and preference in new allocations.

“The number of additional officers needed to serve the West EndJuan Zapata is staggering,” he said.  “The West District service area has the second highest call volume and the third highest number of crimes in the county.”

Of 211 budgeted positions for sworn officers in the West District, 33 are vacant. And everybody knows that there is a large  number of officers in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan that will retire this coming summer, which could leave a bigger hole.

“Even if the West District added 100 new officers it would still be the most under-served district in the county. Every Miami-Dade citizen deserves the security and peace of mind that an adequately staffed police force provide, and at this time the police force serving the West End is far from adequate,” Zapata said in a statement he released Wednesday.

And he posted the mayor’s email and phone number on his Facebook page. After all, he believes the mayor is the one who failed to address the shortage while he advocated spending $1 million on the luxury of body cameras for 150 cops.

“Call.. or email him …to demand a police force  that can provide the security and peace of mind that every Miami-Dade County citizen deserves,” Zapata wrote.

The shortage is already felt by people like Pablo Aguilar, a Realtor whose home near Coral Way and 142nd Avenue was burglarized last year. He and his family returned from a camping trip to find someone had broken into the house through the garage, cut the power, and stole several TVs, jewelry and electronic equipment worth somewhere around $30,000.

“I was scarred by it. My wife and kids were scarred by it,” Aguilar told Ladra. When they talked to other parents at the kids’ school, they realized it had happened to two other people who live in the neighborhood, the same exact way.

“This could have been prevented by having more police on the street,” he said.

Too bad body cameras don’t stop crime.

11 Responses to "Juan Zapata: West End has fewest cops per capita, needs more"

  1. Ladra, west end is the hammocks district. you may want to look at south district too. they are down to a handful of officers on the day shift. the county needs to really hire more.

  2. Dear “No Fan”, aka anonymous, aka coward: Its never been about bigger or smaller (i could really go there but i wont); its always been about good vs bad, qualified vs unqualified, corrupt vs clean government, less government vs more government, honest vs dishonest, less taxes vs more taxes, competent vs incompetent, brave vs cowards. The reality is that a few sold Pinecrest, as the panacea, which it has not been. Just look at how they illegally hide real crime stats to give the impression that they are not having a burglary problem-which they are.
    Their are many more examples of how incorporation has not worked, unlike the city of sunny isles beach that has shown how it can work.
    if you care to further discuss it and are too frightened to identify yourself on this blog, give me a call-i’ll talk to you and give you the real facts.
    In the meantime, Happy holidays
    John Rivera

    • John,

      You and I have argued in print and in person over this issue for years…and my point still is MD cops are not bad, it’s there are too few of them and they cost too much because of their county overhead…and despite the Mayor’s much ballyhooed “reorganization” there is no economy of scale at the county and never will be..

      and as for the whole progressive argument of the donor communities leaving puts a strain on UMSA to service the ‘hood….Why should UMSA and the new cities with their “mitigation fees” be saddled with paying to police the low income UMSA communities, while the old rich white cities from Golden Beach to Coral Gables skate on the same “county wide” responsibilities?

      Clearly incorporation is not the panacea, just ask the residents of Miami Gardens and what do they have now? 150 cops, a command staff with issues and a sky high millage? ..however as you know better than most, the $6 billion bureaucracy of Miami-Dade is out of control and with no solutions in sight.. From a ludicrous and possibly corrupt procurement system to the whole cluster phuck called fleet management, the system is broken….and short of the Broward model of county wide policing with a less powerful county commission (which is NEVER going to happen here) incorporation is most practical available alternative.

      Happy holidays to you and your bothers too..please stay safe.

  3. The fact most of the county is a donor community..About ten years ago there was a study that show only 10 cents of every UMSA tax dollar actually goes to filling pot holes, mowing parks or paying for a cop, the rest is swallowed up by the back hole of bureaucracy..in other words, the economy of scale the county keeps peddling us is total bullshit..

    The last area to incorporate under the old model (not the current one that requires the new city use the existing top heavy MDPD) was Pinecrest.. Under UMSA there was 2 officers per shift covering an area about six times the size of Pinecrest, from the bay to the turnpike. now there are almost 50 cops and clearly crime is down. And unlike all the naysayer predictions in 1995, the village millage rate is lower that it was for UMSA…

    John was originally VERY against the idea of independent incorporations for the obvious reason but those two displaced MD officers have been replaced by 50 Pinecrest village police who are now also unionized by PBA..so you’d think John would be cheerleader of smaller is better…but I guess brown habits die hard..

  4. Instead of continuously running away from the county, by way of incorporation, why don’t we just work together to get rid of the real problem which is spoken about regularly-Carlos Gimenez. He single handily has depleted the police force in large part to enrich his lobbyist/Consultant friends and family. the other part he hasn’t the slightest clue of what it takes to protect a community.
    this is not rocket science! Communities who invest in more security are simply safer; Communities, like Miami-Dade County, who have diluted the police force, are not.
    Also, remember when he almost got caught with the fraudulent absentee ballot investigation? the investigators were not allowed to get a search warrant for Gimenez’ office. Shortly thereafter he dismantled the public corruption unit and disallowed further elected official investigations form that unit.
    Yes, we are the capitol of cargo/auto theft and Gimenez dismantled the auto theft task fore.We lead the nation in identity thefts and Gimenez depleted the number of investigators of that section.Human trafficking and child exploitation has skyrocketed and we only have one detective investigating those crimes.
    Bluntly speaking, if someone steals your, breaks in to your house, the most you should expect is to get a case number for your insurance claims. Otherwise, the odds are that with the shortage of investigators, not much more is human possible.
    There are many reason to rid ourselves of Gimenez, public safety and quality of life just being two good ones.
    lets unite to do away with the strong mayor form of government and lets have an elected sheriff like every other county in the state of Florida.
    Gimenez, more than any one person, or incident, has proven that is is time to remove public safety from under the grubby and incompetent hands of questionable politicians.
    As for Commissioner Zapata, hats off to him. he at least confronts the problem we keep talking about-Gimenez.

  5. This is a wake up call!!! We need to incorporate West Kendall and create our own municipal government to include a separate police department from the county. We are paying higher property taxes due to the value of our homes and we are not getting the service we are paying for. Instead we are paying for other communities that pay lower taxes and receive more police funded by us.

  6. Body cameras generate evidence, without which our courts have to waste immense amounts of time with expensive lawyers on 19th century trials evaluating he said and she said bullshit arguments.

    The west end hasn’t hired 33 officers that are Authorized, paid for and that they should hire!!! That’s an administration issue.

    I commend Commissioner Zapata for doing some of the hard work of being an elected official and determining a statistical problem in our county’s police force, but have to unusually slam Ladra for insinuating that police might prevent or solve a home invasion burglary.

    Police have NO financial incentive to fight crime or solve crime involving property because they have a profitable drug war that is waning, but still a primary influence in their daily actions. They also don’t investigate financial crime or identity crimes which plague citizens far beyond the day of a home robbery.

    If citizens want to solve home invasions, they too must invest in security systems.

    If they want equal protection under the law, they should support Mr. Zapata’so push for more officers and Body cameras. A $6 Billion budget has room for both.

    • Look, Grant, I know you have issues with the cops. And, so do I… when they are in the wrong. And, normally, I like to be slapped (certain places).

      But to insinuate that vigorous police presence does not deter crime or that vigorous follow up investigation does not solve a crime — even a home invasion — is ludicrous. Many have been thwarted. Many have been solved. I worked the police beat for five years and I have seen this first hand. But as we diminish the department, fewer are deterred and fewer are solved. That’s just a fact.

      Guess what? The identity theft unit was dismantled by the mayor’s God awful budget. So was the unit that tracks the sale of counterfeit goods, like fake Guccis and shit. So was the robbery intervention detail that rode around looking for carjackers and home invaders on the prowl.

      And I love the body cams, too, but not at the expense of actual officers. Plus, putting 150 body cams on a force of 2,500 or 3,000 is really not going to give me much comfort.

      And I disagree about the incentive. I know a lot of cops and the overwhelming majority are motivated by the desire to protect and serve and do the right thing. There is no fear that the waning drug “war” (which I d believe is a conspiracy, but at the federal level) is going to hurt their employability. Street cops have job security. Trust me.

      So this was just an opportunity for you to disclose how much disdain you have for law enforcement, which you may have a right to based on your filter of negative experiences. But your very biased opinion is severely flawed.

      Yes, Ladra slaps back. Hope you like it, too.

      Woof!

  7. Perhaps West End residents should do a civil protest a-la “Black Lives Matter” in front of the Mayor’s home. We PAY taxes to have service and if we are to believe Mr. Zapata (who only NOW is doing something about this), then are taxes are paying for lower to NO service. I guess our lives don’t matter, huh Mr. Gimenez? Does my spouse sue YOU and Mr. Zapata personally for not doing anything as of this date?

  8. Gimenez thinks he is the Director of Police. He does not believe we need detectives to solve crimes. In Miami-Dade, people who commit murder have a better than 50/50 chance they will not get caught. If he could privatize the police department and award a contract, you know he would. Since uniformed officers don’t give campaign donations, they are not important to the greedy mayor.

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