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Nov 19, 2009 7:45 pm US/Eastern
Miguel Exposito Named Miami's New Police Chief
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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City of Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito
CBS
The City of Miami officially has a new chief of police. Thursday morning, Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado and City Manager Pete Hernandez named Miguel Exposito as the city's new top cop.
Exposito is a 35-year veteran of the Miami Police Department. He replaces outgoing Chief John Timoney.
"To say I'm excited is an understatement," said Exposito during Thursday morning's announcement.
He briefly outlined some future plans for the department.
"Foremost, in my mind is bringing up the morale of this police department. I think in doing so we'll increase productivity and do a better job to serve this community."
He also said he wants to get the department back to basics.
"I think that's important because we've become too specialized. That doesn't mean we're going to get rid of specialized units or anything of that nature but I think we need to bring police officers back onto the streets."
He plans on getting more officers on the street by hiring civilian personnel to do some of the administrative jobs that trained police officers are doing now.
Those reassigned officers will take to the streets of downtown Miami which is the scene of revitalization.
"I would like for the citizens who go to that area to feel safe and to see that there are officers visible. If we failed to do that and we have any kind of spike in crime in that area we would be really remiss in the sense that we had an opportunity and we failed and I don't want to see that. The downtown areas all over the country are important focal parts of any city, particularly when you have tourism like we do here and it's important we provide that service."
He also wants to move the department's investigative units back to local districts to be closer to the community. The unit investigates crimes that include robberies and burglaries.
Exposito will be sworn in on Tuesday, November 24th. Chief Timoney will stay on as an advisor through January 15th.
Exposito was first hired in 1974 for the Miami Police Department's first class of public service aides. He was only 19-years-old. He rose through the ranks and is currently in charge of the department's property-management section, which oversees the police property room and the auto pound, among other things.
He worked as a major in the Internal Affairs unit and also in the department's Special Investigations Section and Criminal Investigations Section.
As a captain in 2000, he filed a whistle-blower lawsuit saying he was unfairly demoted for complaining about alleged dossiers on elected officials being kept by the police department. He also said the demotion came because he supported bringing in the FBI to investigate a police gun-planting incident following the 1997 shooting of a homeless man in Coconut Grove.
In 2002, he reached a settlement with the city. Timoney promoted him to major. Most recently, he oversaw the compliance task force, which deals with quality of life issues and the city's property section.
As the new chief, Exposito will oversee a sworn force of 1,100 officers and 400 civilians.
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