DeFede Columns

MIAMI (CBS4) ― The Special Investigations Section, according to the Miami Police Department's website, is an elite unit within the department focusing on crimes such as "money laundering, high level narcotics trafficking, weapons violations and terrorism related activities."

Detectives from the Special Investigations Section, commonly known as SIS, work closely with the DEA, the Secret Service, and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The department's website highlights many of the unit's accomplishments, such as the arrest of a fugitive wanted in Italy for a bombing that killed 80 people, the dismantling of a criminal network that was responsible for the human trafficking of children, and a yearlong SIS investigation that resulted in the largest cocaine bust in the history of the Miami Police Department with $400 million worth of cocaine being seized and 11 people arrested.

The department will need to update the list to include the unit's most recent achievement: The arrest of an 18-year-old purse thief.

Naturally, this wasn't just any purse thief. The young man arrested is accused of stealing the purse of Police Chief John Timoney's wife.

As I reported last month in "A Tale of Two Thefts," Noreen Timoney had stopped to get gas at a service station on 54th Street, and while she was filling the tank, a young man snuck over to the passenger side of her Lexus sedan, quietly opened the unlocked door and took her purse from the front seat. The man then crept away and jumped into a waiting car. It took several minutes before Noreen Timoney even realized her purse was missing.

Noreen Timoney's subsequent 911 call for help resulted in a police response that was nothing short of extraordinary. In a matter of minutes, at least six patrol cars arrived on the scene, along with a detective from the burglary unit and a crime scene technician to dust the car for fingerprints. (My earlier report noted, that just 24 hours earlier, on September 6, a woman had her car window smashed and her purse stolen just a few blocks away, and the police refused to dispatch either a detective or a crime scene technician.)

But what wasn't known until now is that in addition to all of the officers responding that day, behind the scenes the call went out to assign SIS detectives to the Timoney case. In fact, it was that elite and often-secretive unit inside the department that tracked down Noreen Timoney's purse thief in less than 48 hours. To accomplish this feat, the SIS detectives involved were granted unlimited overtime to bring this case to a quick close.

The department has refused to say who made the decision to bring in the SIS detectives and to authorize their overtime, although indications are it was either Deputy Chief Frank Fernandez or Chief John Timoney. The use of SIS further fuels the suspicion that Noreen Timoney's case received special treatment.

"I don't know which detectives from SIS were used, but it certainly took away from whatever else they were supposed to be doing," said Armando Aguilar, president of the Fraternal Order of Police and a frequent critic of John Timoney. "These are detectives who are supposed to be handling major narcotics cases and terrorist cases. They don't handle stolen purses and car burglaries. Victims who actually get robbed don't get that type of treatment and attention with overtime being authorized. And yet with the police chief's wife you get carte blanche with the taxpayers' money."

Although initially the department denied that either SIS detectives were called in or that overtime was sanctioned, the police chief's office now claims the use of SIS detectives and overtime was justified. The department noted there were two similar thefts earlier in the day and two others over the weekend.

"Based on the series of incidents involving the same offenders, the overtime was authorized by the supervisor to stop any further victimization of our citizens," the chief's statement noted. "The pattern and series of events led the officers to suspect that the offenders would continue their crime spree and potentially endanger other citizens. Our intervention had to be immediate and swift."

Aguilar laughed at the chief's rationale.

"I venture to say there has been a lot more than three," he said. "These crimes have been taking place for quite some time. There is nothing new about these crimes. The only thing new was that it was police chief's wife. We also have a trend of people getting robbed and killed but you don't see the SIS unit being mobilized to catch the guy on the same day."

And it is worth noting, that Alvens Loriston, the 18-year-old arrested by SIS, has only been charged in the Noreen Timoney case.

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