CBS4.com staffers show off events in South Florida
Jun 25, 2008 8:27 pm US/Eastern
Miami Police Commander "Rescinds" Resignation
Whitehead Vows To Fight Charges
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Lorenzo Whitehead
MIAMI HERALD/CBS
Miami Police Department Commander Lorenzo Whitehead, who resigned from the force Tuesday amid an on-going criminal probe, tells
CBS4 News he has "rescinded" his resignation and intends to "fight" the allegations against him.
As
CBS4 News first reported exclusively on Tuesday, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has submitted a case against Whitehead to public corruption prosecutors in the office of Miami-Dade State Attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
The FDLE is investigating charges that the Miami Police Department has engaged in a systematic effort to doctor crime statistics, in an effort to make the city appear safer than it actually is. The allegations were brought last year by the Fraternal Order of Police, the union representing police officers. The F.O.P. claims police commanders and officers, under Chief John Timoney, had been under withering pressure to downplay the crime picture, and report serious crimes as lesser offenses.
Timoney has denied the allegations, calling them "union politics."
Commander Whitehead, a 29 year veteran of the force, told
CBS4's Gary Nelson on Wednesday that he has "done nothing wrong." Whitehead told Nelson, "It's my job to make decisions. Did I make a bad decision? Maybe. But there was no criminal intent, it was one report."
"I've done nothing wrong, " Whitehead told Nelson. "My integrity is all I have."
Whitehead said he squelched the armed robbery report because he believed the alleged victim "had no credibility."
The Commander said he intends to return to work tomorrow, that he was "too upset" to go to work on Wednesday because of how he "was treated" by the FDLE.
Whitehead said that the FDLE forwarded a criminal complaint against him to prosecutors, without giving him the "courtesy" of first speaking with him for his side of the story.
Whitehead has been known in the community for his work with inner-city children, volunteer activities and "commmunity" style of policing.
When he was transferred from the Model City police district earlier this year, members of the community held a rally to protest his reassignment.
Sources tell
CBS4 News, however, that the FDLE is investigating additional reports, in an effort to build a larger case against the police Commander and others in the police department.
Chief Timoney issued a written statement, defending the long-time Miami cop. "Commander Whitehead is a hard working dedicated and honest person," Timoney said.
Earlier this year, the FBI released an audit of a random sampling of Miami Police calls that concluded the overwhelming majority of them were properly reported. Chief Timoney called it a vindication of the department.
The police officers' union, however, has said the FBI's findings were flawed, because they were based on fraudulent data.
F.O.P. President Armando Aguilar said, "Garbage in, garbage out. An audit is only as good as the numbers the auditors have to work with."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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