TITLE
RESOLUTION DIRECTING THE COUNTY MAYOR OR MAYOR'S DESIGNEE TO CONTINUE THE POLICY OF HIRING INDIVIDUALS AS POLICE OFFICER TRAINEES AND SPONSORING THEM THROUGH THE MIAMI-DADE POLICE DEPARTMENT�S POLICE ACADEMY

BODY
WHEREAS, the Miami-Dade Police Department provides countywide and sheriff services to a diverse multi-ethnic and racial population; and
WHEREAS, in order to become a certified police officer, each new police recruit/trainee must participate in a basic law enforcement training program; and
WHEREAS, in prior administrations, as the need for new recruits arose, the County hired individuals as police officer trainees and sponsored them through the police academy as County employees while they trained to obtain their certification as police officers; and
WHEREAS, the policy of training recruits and sponsoring such training allowed the County the opportunity to have the best trained and most diverse group of police officers; and
WHEREAS, >>for the past three hiring cycles<<1 this administration has [[instituted a new policy of only hiring]] >>hired< WHEREAS, by focusing its recruiting on certified and/or lateral police officers who do not have to go through the Miami-Dade Police Department police academy, the Miami-Dade Police Department loses the advantage of training and evaluating its own recruits; and
[[WHEREAS, this change in policy makes it very difficult for individuals from lower economic backgrounds to become Miami-Dade Police Department police officers; and
WHEREAS, according to economic research conducted by the Social and Economic Development Council, Miami-Dade County Department of Planning and Zoning, households headed by minorities are significantly more likely to fall in the lower socioeconomic class; and
WHEREAS, the policy of hiring pre-certified police officers rather than giving all potential recruits the opportunity to train as Miami-Dade Police Department police officers has a disproportionate adverse impact on minorities and others who are unable to afford the cost of such training; and]]
WHEREAS, the policy of hiring pre-certified police officers limits the diversity of the pool of officers available to serve as recruits and makes it more difficult for the Miami-Dade Police Department to serve the needs of our diverse community,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA, that the County Mayor or Mayor's designee is directed to [[reinstitute]] >>continue<< the policy of focusing its� recruiting on hiring individuals as police officer trainees and sponsoring such individuals through the police academy training program. The [[reinstitution]] >>continuation<< of this policy of recruiting non-certified police trainees shall not preclude the Miami-Dade Police Department from hiring a class consisting predominantly or wholly of certified police officers should there be a shortage of officers and there is not adequate time to recruit and train a non-certified class>>; provided that, whether lateral hire or recruited and trained by the Miami-Dade Police Department, each class of recruits takes into account the diversity of Miami-Dade County<<. If this resolution becomes effective on or prior to June 1st, 2013, the policy of recruiting non-certified police academy trainees shall be implemented no later than June 1st, 2013, otherwise, this policy shall be implemented as of the effective date of this resolution.

1 Committee amendments are indicated as follows: Words stricken through and/or [[double bracketed]] are deleted, words underscored and/or >>double arrowed<< are added.

This item was amended at the Public Safety and Animal Services Committee on April 10, 2013. The item was amended to change all references to the word reinstitute and replace it with continue. Three of the whereas clauses were deleted and a clause was added to the second sentence of the body of the resolution to reflect the goal of aspiring to have each recruiting class reflect the diversity found in Miami-Dade County.