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th Avenue. Miami, Florida 33130

Phone (305) 854-5019 Ortiz@fopmiami.com

Javier Ortiz Thomas Reyes PRESIDENT SECRETARY

September 3, 2015

Re: MPD Press Conference On Police Hiring & City Manager’s Hiring Strategy

Dear Members of the media and concerned citizens,

The data provided by the City Manager for the press conference is insulting to the citizens and employees of the

City of Miami. To quantify crime in the city of Miami as “Part I Crimes” is disingenuous. No one compares a

car being stolen or a shoplifter to a murder or rape. If the manager wants to discuss crime, let’s discuss the

crimes that have the greatest impact on the citizens. Innocent people being shot, our neighbors being

burglarized, family members raped, and corner stores being robbed are the crimes they should address. The

ability of the police department to prevent and solve these crimes is what the tax payers are concerned with, not

a combined total grouping “larcenies” with capital offenses.

The most disingenuous portion of the City Manager’s message was his attached graphs. The doctoring of the

scale of the graphs leads us to believe that he doesn’t think we can quantify statistics and basic math. All of the

cities compared to Miami had nearly double the number of officers per residents, but the graphs make it appear

that Miami is equal, if not better. The graph comparing Baltimore to the City of Miami shows a dramatic

decline in officers (signified by the red line). According to their graph, Miami has 2.55 officers per 1K

residents while Baltimore has 4.55. The City of Baltimore has declined to nearly double the number of officers

with a commiserate crime rate. On September 10th

, we will demonstrate how false this statistic is.

I would like to thank the administration for providing the elected officials and citizens in the City of Miami with

these statistics. We would ask that they present the same statistics with the values reflecting an accurate

comparison. If accurate charts are not provided prior to tomorrow’s press conference, the FOP will generate

accurate charts to present.

The City Manager’s memorandum shows the incompetency of the administration in purposely deceiving the

public. This is nothing but pure manipulation of statistics in order to turn a blind eye to the current state of our

police department. On September 10th

, the Fraternal Order of Police will show our community as well as our

elected officials how the hiring strategy as well as the crime statistics put forth at this press conference are

nothing but another smoke and mirrors attempt to betray the public.

Regards,

Lt. Javier Ortiz

Lieutenant Javier Ortiz, President

Miami Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #20