Broward County Sheriff's Office Loses Accreditation After Flawed Response to Mass Shootings
The largest sheriff’s office in Florida has lost its accreditation after accusations that it responded poorly to mass shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018 and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 2017, according to the Miami Herald.
A state panel voted unanimously to revoke the office’s accreditation, citing incompetence in law enforcement’s response to the attacks.
From the Herald:
Both incidents were marked by chaotic and disorganized responses from the sheriff’s office. Seventeen people died at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on Feb. 14, 2018, including some who were waiting for rescue as BSO deputies took cover, put on body armor and struggled to find the building where the massacre had taken place. Then-Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, a Democrat, defended his agency but was suspended from office by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. [..]
A draft report by BSO officials found that [during the Fort Lauderdale incident] “the absence of a clearly defined [incident command] created unnecessary entanglements and unclear responsibilities.” (Much like he did after Stoneman Douglas, Israel defended BSO’s performance at the airport, telling the South Florida Sun Sentinel that “everything was done excellently.”)
The loss of accreditation is mostly symbolic, and won’t impact day to day functioning of the office. But it shows that the state is taking the failures of the department seriously.
An assessment team from the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation has reviewed BSO twice since the Parkland shooting in 2018. Initially, the team found that the office was in compliance with state standards. They recommended that BSO be “favorably reviewed” by the CFA panel.