Nobody’s perfect. But Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel is pretty close, at least in terms of his record on LGBT inclusion and community policing while breathing new life into county law enforcement.
Current statistics show that violent crime in Broward County is down a whopping 20.5 percent, compared to 2.8 percent for the state as a whole over the past two years. So I sat down with Florida’s first Jewish sheriff this week to talk about the tremendous strides his department has made in just the two plus years since he took office. Truth be told, as a journalist, I wanted to find at least one skeleton hanging in his closet. Just one!
But the only closet I found was the one with the door ripped off its hinges.
This former Fort Lauderdale Police Department commander and North Bay Village police chief convinced me face-to-face that he understands the juxtaposition of LGBT rights and community representation, both inside his vast fiefdom and throughout one of South Florida’s key polities.
In fact, as head of the largest, fully accredited sheriff’s office in the United States, overseeing some 5,700 members from police and fire to child protective services, Israel has managed to set the tone and bar at a level where his counterparts in surrounding counties would have to be administratively blind not to notice the progress he has achieved in a very short amount of time.
A household name among county Democrats, the sheriff has made it a point to meet with local clergy and even walk the streets of Wilton Manors in order to keep his finger on the pulse of what city officials, business owners and their LGBT patrons expect from the man entrusted with ensuring public safety.
This hands-on approach to engagement has been mirrored internally as well. The command staff that surrounds him has never better reflected the LGBT population in Broward County more than it does today.
“Surround yourself with lions who share the same mission,” said the sheriff, who prides himself on bringing different points of view to the table.
In the photo, Sheriff Israel poses with some of his LGBT “lions.” Pictured left to right are:
- General Counsel Ron Gunzburger
- Detective David Currie
- Deputy Tammy Encina
- Deputy Shannon Bennett
- Deputy Vanessa Direzze-Encina
- Firefighter Paramedic Cindy Taffel
- CSA Tony Vincent
- Sheriff Scott Israel
- Deputy Laura Benedict
- Civil Deputy Kelly Creamer
- Firefighter Paramedic Brett Dunckell
- Deputy General Counsel Patricia Windowmaker
- Sgt. Paul Auerbach
- Captain Jan Jordan
- Asst. General Counsel Stephen Muffler
Sheriff Israel’s efforts to promote LGBT diversity within his ranks are informed by a deeply held belief in the constitutional right of each human being to be treated with fairness and respect. In fact, the sheriff is reportedly the highest-ranking law enforcement official to sign an amicus brief in favor of marriage equality as part of a historic legal case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. Oral arguments are scheduled to begin on April 28.
Some of the significant changes that Sheriff Israel has brought to his department include promoting and recruiting senior LGBT staff and beefing up the department’s non-discrimination policy to include an equal benefits policy by requiring department vendors on contracts worth more than $100,000 to provide identical health coverage for same-sex partners of their employees as they extend to their married opposite-sex couples. New rules demand that vendors institute the same kind of workplace diversity policies as the county law enforcement agency they supply.
I’d be remiss, however, if I did not quickly bring up the sensitive topic of body cameras, something the sheriff supports.
“The camera doesn’t lie,” he said. But for him the bigger issue is cost. Who is going to pay for storing and accessing the new data, hiring new and of course maintaining and upgrading the equipment? All important questions that have yet to be answered when technology leads practice. Regular police officers have yet to embrace any change. Reactions are mixed, but the police union opposes body cameras on privacy grounds. Any new policy on body cameras would also have to survive in court.
For one thing, “it’s going to make the conviction rate that much higher,” said the sheriff. “It’ll clear many more officers than it will convict.”
Despite the sheriff’s views on LGBT diversity and his compassion in general, it is way too early to endorse him for reelection despite the U.S. presidential kicking into high gear. But what the heck. I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway.
