After tourist killing, Miami Beach reassigns 40 new cops to South Beach party hub

Less than two weeks after the fatal shooting of a Colorado tourist, Miami Beach’s top administrator announced the city would once again ramp up police and code enforcement in the South Beach entertainment district to address safety and quality of life concerns.

In a memo Friday, City Manager Alina Hudak said an average of 40 city police officers would be reassigned to patrol the streets of South Beach. She said another 10 would be provided by Miami-Dade Police on weekends through the end of the year and that the city would also bring on or reassign additional code officers and park rangers to regulate business activity and enforce ordinance violations.

As part of a new “comprehensive strategy” to manage the South Beach party scene, Hudak said staff from other city departments — like sanitation, parking, fire rescue and homeless outreach — would work with police and code enforcement to create a “visible and constant deterrent” in the world-famous party scene.

Hudak, who was appointed city manager in April, said the plan addresses how South Beach’s enforcement challenges are no longer limited to traditionally busy party periods like spring break or Memorial Day Weekend.

She urged focus on the “year-round threat to public safety from visitors who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for human life, public property and the well-being of our many law-abiding residents and guests.”

“As we all know and understand, the many years of troubling incidents in this district can no longer be tolerated,” Hudak said. “One thing has become clear since my appointment as City Manager four months ago: It is no longer sufficient to treat what has historically been defined as ‘high impact periods’ as anomalies when every weekend brings significant crowds and challenges.”

Hudak said she would hire a consulting firm to analyze the policing needs in the entertainment district and directed a review of the pay rate for Miami Beach Police’s off-duty program to get more cops outside South Beach businesses.

“For some time now, we have been unable to fill the available off-duty shifts with officers willing to accept them,” she said. “I’m in the process of reviewing the rate structure to incentivize more officers to accept these assignments and will be recommending a higher pay rate in the near future.”

The Wakefield killing

The renewed push to saturate South Beach’s streets with police follows the Aug. 24 shooting of Dustin Wakefield, the latest high-profile crime to outrage residents and city leaders. Residents held a vigil Tuesday for Wakefield, a 21-year-old father who was dining at an Ocean Drive restaurant with his family when he was fatally shot in a seemingly random attack.

In a video message Friday, Mayor Dan Gelber said Wakefield’s killing led several concerned residents to ask what the city could do to make South Beach safer.

The new plan, he said, would “create the highest level of regular police presence this area has ever seen.”

But that level of enforcement is not sustainable, he said. He repeated his calls to reform the party district as a mixed-use area with fewer bars and clubs, more residential and office buildings — and an earlier cutoff for alcohol sales.

“We are going to continue to arrest people and cite businesses and seize guns, and unfortunately hold vigils,” he said. “And I’m sorry for sounding like a broken record for the last three years. But if we want to reverse this decade-long slide we are experiencing in this area of our city, we need to take dramatic action.”

The reassignment of dozens of officers into South Beach, which Hudak said took effect Aug. 30, is the latest effort by Miami Beach Police to beef up its presence in the tourist hub — especially in the wake of a high-profile violent crime.

In February, after a two-month pilot program that brought 28 extra officers to South Beach’s entertainment area ended, Miami Beach Police revived the enhanced staffing plan after a violent weekend involving an armed robbery and shooting upset residents and politicians.

More recently, as part of Miami-Dade’s Operation Summer Heat — a countywide police presence through August created to tackle an increase in violent crime — Miami Beach Police’s Strategic Enforcement Team spent 12 weeks focusing on “arresting violent offenders, deterring violent criminal behavior and continuing the mission of removing firearms from the streets of Miami Beach,” according to a June memo.

Also around that time, Miami Beach Police called in Miami-Dade Schools Police to work weekends in the Collins Avenue corridor providing an added police presence for an eight-week period through August.

The 10 county police officers have been working in the city for the past four months but Hudak said the county committed to donating the resources for the rest of the year.

Commissioner Mark Samuelian said the plan would serve as a “launching point” to make South Beach safer.

“We want an environment where residents and visitors feel safe and we clearly have to dramatically improve,” he said.