Broward Sheriff's Office Just Lost Its Accreditation, Continuing Troubled Legacy From Scott Israel's Time in Office
The largest sheriff’s office in Florida has lost its accreditation.
The office, formerly overseen by disgraced Sheriff Scott Israel, was stripped of its accreditation after a unanimous vote last week by a state panel, according to the Miami Herald.
The Broward sheriff’s office was roundly criticized and castigated for what many around the country saw as a chaotic, ineffective, and at times cowardly response to the shooting which took the lives of 17 people in February 2018.
In the days after, Israel made rounds on television, adamantly defending his and his department’s response to the shooting.
But Israel lost the public’s confidence as more and more came out about his past involvement in liberal programs designed to stem the “school to prison pipeline” but that had in reality allowed dangerous behavior to go unchecked.
While information on that issue was coming out, allegations about Israel’s deputies and their responses to the shooting began to spread.
Ultimately several deputies resigned and eventually the man who came to be known to some as “the Coward of Broward,” former deputy Scot Peterson, was arrested for seven counts of neglect of a child among other charges.
Citing two different shootings — the Parkland shooting and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport shooting — the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation voted 13-0 to revoke the agency’s accreditation.
The lost accreditation will not greatly impact the agency’s day-to-day operations.
The revocation, however, is yet another black eye to a law enforcement department that is transitioning leadership and struggling to find its footing after devastating past lapses in leadership.
A cynical person might even think of this as a final “present” from the disgraced sheriff.
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