The Justice Department has opened a preliminary inquiry into alleged police misconduct in Miami-Dade County and will decide whether to go ahead with a full investigation in three months.
The inquiry was announced Friday by Robert Driscoll, deputy assistant attorney general for the department’s Civil Rights Division, at a hearing convened by a congresswoman disturbed by several police shootings of minorities within the past year.
“This is a community that is in an uproar,” Rep. Carrie Meek (D-Fla.) told about 200 people at the hearing. “We’re not saying all police are bad, but they better get their house in order.”
The police shootings have included three deaths. Two victims were unarmed, and a third was in his wheelchair rolling away from an officer.
The state attorney’s office has cleared officers accused of misconduct because it found they acted within the law.
At the hearing, lawyers for the victims’ families, civil rights activists and community groups urged the Justice Department to open a full probe.
“If they’re not going to protect and serve us, then take it off their cars, because it’s false advertising,” said Victor Curry, a bishop at New Birth Baptist Church.
Miami-Dade Police Chief Carlos Alvarez invited the federal review. “We are confident that, when they look at the facts, they won’t find any wrongdoing.”
In the city of Miami, more than a dozen police officers have been indicted on federal charges of misconduct since September.
