Fort Lauderdale police deserve better treatment from city | Editorial

In “Where the Boys Are,” the movie that glorified spring break in Fort Lauderdale, a scene shows city police assembled outside police headquarters, ready to tackle crowd control on the beach.

The movie that became a cult classic came out in 1960 — the year after that brand new police station opened in 1959. Six decades later, Fort Lauderdale police find themselves essentially homeless after their archaic, cramped, mold-infested building on Broward Boulevard had to be evacuated — a drastic step that should never have been necessary.

Amid complaints by city workers, the city realized it had to move quickly — something the city of Fort Lauderdale is not built to do. (The massive April floods that ruined City Hall happened four months ago, and city officials are still debating whether to demolish the building.)

The aging police headquarters has long had all kinds of problems, from mold to leaky roofs to balky air conditioners and elevators so unreliable that officers took stairs instead. Boxes of evidence were stacked next to bathroom urinals at the time of a 2019 Sun Sentinel article.

Conditions worsened, but the city did nothing.

“They knew about it. They just chose to ignore it,” City Commissioner John Herbst told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board.

City voters passed a bond issue in 2019 to build a new $140 million police station, and construction finally started in July, behind the existing station, during the city commission’s annual summer break.

A mad scramble

An incessant pounding caused by ground-settling tests known as vibro-compaction prompted complaints from uniformed officers and civilian workers about noise so loud that it broke their concentration. This should have come as no surprise to city staffers, but a mad scramble ensued to find temporary space for about 800 police department employees.

Some police operations moved temporarily to a cramped and unpleasant building just west of headquarters. (Temporary, by the way, could be up to three years, when the new headquarters is ready.)

Commissioner Warren Sturman heard so many complaints that he wanted the city to hold an emergency meeting last week to deal with the problem, only to realize that only the mayor or city manager could call an emergency meeting, so it didn’t happen.

True to form, city officials could not reach a consensus on a relocation plan — until Tuesday, when this comedy of errors finally appeared to reach a resolution of sorts at the end of a marathon 10-hour meeting.

In a last-minute, non-agenda item known in Lauderdale-speak as a “walk-on,” way past bedtime for most taxpayers and police personnel, and with documents not available, commissioners considered four sites. But it was done in such slapdash fashion that Commissioner Steven Glassman said: “We have nothing in writing.”

With Glassman voting no, the commission voted 4 to 1 to direct City Manager Greg Chavarria to draft a lease with owners of a vacant four-story building at 1515 W. Cypress Road on the city’s northern border in an area known as Uptown.

According to emails between the owner and city, the building once known as the Kaplan University Learning Center is designed to withstand hurricane winds of more than 120 miles an hour, is in a low-risk flood zone, has covered parking for 300 police cars and is close to the city’s emergency operations center.

The owner also threw in a rent-free month.

On the ground floor

Police Chief Patrick Lynn and senior officers toured the Kaplan building and endorsed it, partly because the owners will lease the first and second floors to the city, where police prefer to be, and as a matter of convenience for the public.

“Kaplan would work better,” Lynn told commissioners, “because of the configuration.”

The Kaplan site, with about 47,000 square feet, or about half the size of the current headquarters, is the largest of the four sites and has the most parking.

But City Manager Chavarria, misreading his bosses’ preferences and contradicting police leaders, urged commissioners to choose a smaller site at less cost at 1901 W. Cypress Creek Road. The commission wisely rejected the manager’s advice.

The manager was critical of a provision requiring a desk sergeant on patrol in the lobby 24 hours a day, which the building’s owner, Sheldon Gross, agreed to drop as unnecessary. Mayor Dean Trantalis emphasized that a final vote on the lease will take place next month.

This needless controversy comes as Fort Lauderdale, like many police departments, is recruiting new officers to cope with a high vacancy rate.

The police officers whom we expect to serve and protect us don’t have enough people in city government serving and protecting them.

When residents of Fort Lauderdale dial 911, they expect an immediate police response. When police need a clean, reliable and safe workplace, the city had a duty to respond with a similar sense of urgency — and it didn’t.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.