Police Benevolent Association (PBA) President John Rivera has been one of the staunchest opponents of the creation of municipalities in Miami-Dade County's unincorporated areas.

(PBA) President John Rivera

However, Miami Lakes recently presented their proposal to incorporate to the county commission and while he and his organization didn't necessarily endorse their plan they also agreed not to oppose it. (The Miami Lakes plan does not include the creation of their own police force; they will continue to use Miami-Dade Police and they will have a "chief" of the Miami Lakes division who will answer directly to their soon-to-be established city commission.)

This move was crucial to the eventual endorsement by the Miami-Dade County Commission of the Miami Lakes request for an incorporation referendum--PBA opposition had been a major stumbling block in previous attempts by several unincorporated areas to get a similar vote approved.

Rivera recently agreed to sit with the Doral Tribune and discuss not only incorporation as it relates to Miami-Dade Police Department, but also what sort of compromises the PBA might be inclined to accept with regard to Doral's own incorporation.

Mr. Rivera, why did you and your organization choose to support the Miami Lakes' incorporation bid?
Firstly, I do not support incorporation period.  Now, having said that, the Miami-Lakes deal is the best of all evils. I did go before the County Commission, and while I said that we are still very much opposed to incorporation, I also praised the professionalism of Miami Lakes.

The Miami Lakes people were open-minded and responsive to what we had to say when we met with them, and they also appeared to be the ones most genuinely concerned with public safety.

I wanted the commission to know that this group was by far the most responsible and the easiest to deal with.

It also seemed to me that their motives were more genuine than many of the others that we've met with.

Can you explain further what sort of things motivate some of the other groups involved in incorporation efforts?
Some of the motives for incorporation in some of the areas that are seeking it are not--mainly people trying to achieve political status who are incapable of holding offices county-wide or state-wide.

However, they can't pull that over on the public--despite all those efforts talking about the benefits of small government and how good government is closer to the people--the public recognizes what they're doing.

Instead, they latched onto the one thing that could make people nervous: crime and public safety. That's why they don't cry out about not having things like their own fire departments--they want a city but not all of the responsibilities that come with it.

A police force is also what makes politicians so powerful; it gives them clout, and makes having their own force that much more attractive.

However, local departments don't necessarily provide better forces for public safety.

What are some examples of how having a larger police force would be more advantageous?
Well, for starters, in the Elian Gonzalez case, Miami-Dade Police were able to mobilize thousands of officers almost immediately in order to keep the peace.

If there had been just municipal departments in Miami-Dade County, how could that many patrol officers possibly be spared to make sure order was kept?
Or when Janet Reno was recently visiting Bal Harbour--and the Bal Harbour force has great officers--but they couldn't have provided security for her themselves; they relied on the Miami-Dade Police to help with the security.

What about those who propose going to a system with just a sheriff kind of force, along the lines of the FDLE, which would handle rapes, murders, and similarly serious crimes?
If you go to just a sheriff service, well, what happens when there is another major event? A sheriff's department without a patrol capability won't be able to help--people are simply being duped into thinking that there may be something better, when they're not.

Miami-Lakes, by keeping the Miami-Dade Police on hand, will be able to get, with the flick of a switch, the support of the entire Miami-Dade force--although I should make it clear that we would deny that help to any municipality that needed it. It's just that by having the same communication links, the same training, and the same chain of command, it's easier to utilize Miami-Dade Police resources.

For instance, what if there's another (ValuJet) Flight 592--if another plane crashes in the Everglades--who handles that? Is it Doral, because they are the closest? 
Does Bal Harbour or Miami Beach have to commit their police boats? What about helicopters? What about a unified command?
The people pushing for more municipal police departments at the expense of the Miami-Dade force, either they don't understand, or they don't want to understand.

Generally, have you found that people are unhappy with the performance of the Miami-Dade Police?
I don't think that most citizens care about the uniform or patch on it--they just want to be safe.
The pro-incorporation people, what they love to say is, "it's a great department, but there's just not enough of them (Miami-Dade Police)."

Well then, why not get more Miami-Dade Police?
If we wanted to ensure a set number of police for an area, I'd support that. Say, for instance, at any given time there'd have to be thirty Miami-Dade officers on duty in Doral.

Hire more officers--don't cut back and shrink what you call the best police force in the area.

Cutting back on the metro force--that's such a course of self-destruction. Look at what other areas are doing. In Broward County many cities are getting rid of their departments altogether and they're using the Broward Sheriffs Office (BSO) instead; in Jacksonville, one of the most successful and fastest growing parts of the state, they're using Metro.

But why do many people in the newly incorporated areas like Pinecrest point to their police departments and say that they're getting much better protection now than they did before--that crime rates are down?

Let me tell you about Pinecrest, since you named that as an example.

Pinecrest is the only municipality in Miami-Dade that doesn't have a contract with the PBA. And do you know why? The problem isn't salary or hours--it's "just cause".

What that means is, in order to fire an officer, you need to have "just cause", it can't just be on a whim.

"Just cause" is important because it takes away corruption; for instance, if an officer refuses to take away a ticket that was given to a friend of the mayor, "just cause" means you can't get fired for doing that.

Pinecrest is supposed to be this beacon of light, of incorporation, but they won't even allow "just cause" into their union contract.

And as for the statement that crime is down in Pinecrest--well, crime is down across Miami-Dade County, it's a national trend. I hope they aren't taking credit for that also.

People in the municipalities also claim that local department's response times to complaint calls are much quicker than the county's.

Those numbers are misleading. Municipalities have two radio systems--one that connects to their own cars and one that connects to Miami-Dade cars.

They cook the numbers--when someone calls their department with a complaint, they call one of their own officers right away to dispatch them, then they call Miami-Dade, who dispatches one of their officers.

It isn't until the call is made to Miami-Dade that the time clock on response time starts, but by then the municipal officers already have a four or five minute head start.

The numbers are very misleading--and they do it that way to promote incorporation.

Would you oppose incorporation in Doral if they followed the example set by Miami Lakes?
I would not be opposed to a department that uses Miami-Dade police with a chief that's accountable to the city commission, like they've proposed in Miami Lakes and like they have in parts of Broward.
In Pompano Beach they've gone to the BSO; they've dropped their department and they like it better.
But with these municipalities forming their own departments--why we refuse to learn from the successes and failures of others I'll never understand...

I understand why some areas would want to incorporate, to create parks, schools, and in general clean up the town.

That's all fine, but it's a mistake to dismantle the Miami-Dade Police.

How would you respond to the argument that the PBA opposes incorporation because it's scared of losing members because Miami-Dade Police will lose officers?
That's just not correct.

All officers of all the recently incorporated areas--except Pinecrest, who we continue to negotiate with--have joined the PBA.

All it (incorporating) would mean is that would deal with more contracts and more personnel, which is good--it would increase membership.

The argument that we are scared of losing members is far-fetched.

However, I believe that the best solution is to hire more members--we fully support donor communities (wealthier parts of unincorporated Miami-Dade) having a more Miami-Dade officers assigned to that community.

Let's all sit down and come up with a mandate to make that happen.