Posts tagged Miami Police Department
Despite arrest, corruption charge, Miami police union still all in on Diaz de la Portilla
October 19, 2023 // A month after Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla was arrested on charges of trading a vote for hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations and gifts, it hasn’t cost him the support of Miami’s men and women in blue. In June, Miami’s Fraternal Order of Police announced it was putting its considerable political heft behind Diaz de la Portilla, a former state representative who was once chosen politician of the year by the union. And Monday — a month after Diaz de la Portilla’s Sept. 14 arrest — the union’s president made it clear that as far as he was concerned, nothing had changed. “There are two kinds of people that are always presumed guilty before innocent, cops and politicians,” said FOP President Felix Del Rosario.
The Tangled Tale of Miami’s Untouchable Police Union Boss
September 29, 2022 // Ortiz had been with MPD since 2004. Over the course of his career, he received more than 50 citizen complaints, had 20 use of force incidents, and was suspended with pay three times, all the while ascending through the ranks to become an influential police captain. Claims of abuse of power, corruption and prejudice followed the longtime police union leader for years and made him a household name in the Miami area, perhaps more so than any other MPD officer. His career survived multiple internal affairs investigations, which tended to dawdle past their completion deadlines and often yielded no disciplinary action.