Public Safety

Ensuring our community is safe

• Expanded police and fire protection by budgeting for 35 additional police officers and 26 new fire personnel over the last two years alone.
  
  
  
  
• Encouraged city manager to hire longtime Fort Lauderdale officer William Schultz as chief and bring new ideas and innovation to the Police Department.
• Broke ground on a state-of-the-art new police headquarters after leading a public referendum to raise funding for the construction.
  
  
  
  
• On verge of completing a major overhaul of our fire-rescue facilities: building or replacing 11 stations and approving the construction of Emergency Medical SubStation 88 south of the New River and space for EMS and fire services in a new parking garage being built off Las Olas Boulevard.
• Increased the number of rescue units staffed by three firefighters so fire engines can respond to a fire call while companion rescue units are on another call.
• Created a new Community Support Unit in the Police Department to address neighborhood concerns.
• Implemented a high-tech camera system that has enhanced the documentation of crime scenes so investigators and juries can virtually place themselves in the location.
• Placed tactical analysts in the Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center to better relay pertinent information to responding officers.
• Installed new ShotSpotter technology that listens for gunshots and reports the GPS location immediately to police officers.
• Launched a collaborative project with federal and state law enforcement partners to address gun violence.
  
  
  
  
• Started a program to improve its firearms analysis so police have enhanced ability to solve gun-related crime.
• Launched a mobile integrated healthcare program in the Fire Department to provide non-emergency healthcare services to the community.
• Initiated the use of body cameras for police officers to increase transparency and accountability in light of national scrutiny of police actions.
• Supported police reforms, including adding a duty for officers to intervene if they see a colleague behaving badly, in order to address racial justice concerns and ensure a culture in which all people are treated equally, fairly and with full transparency.
• Represented the city in planning the construction of a new federal courthouse and obtaining needed federal money to pay for the project.
  
  
  
  
• Enacted a new ordinance to enhance pedestrian safety on roadways, which aims to address the issue of individuals soliciting while obstructing vehicular rights of way.
• Launched a Community Court to divert individuals with minor offenses away from jail and instead provide them with temporary housing and social services that address the root causes of why they were living on the streets.
• Increasing the number of police officers assigned full time to homeless outreach.
• Doubled city funding of a housing navigation program, a unique collaboration with the TaskForce For Ending Homelessness to reduce the number of displaced individuals.
• Closed the longtime homeless encampment that had taken over the area between the main county library and Stranahan Park.
• Worked with the School District in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting to ensure safety at schools in Fort Lauderdale.

Leading in times of crisis

• Took early action to close beaches during Spring Break and coordinated with Miami Beach to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
  
  
  
  
• Led a regional effort for a stay-at-home order and was among the first to require face coverings, setting a model for local and national responses to the pandemic.
• Distributed food, assisted the homeless and started relief programs for mortgages, rent, and utility bills to support the community during the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Established COVID-19 testing sites and then vaccination sites.
  
  
  
  
• Created city task forces to make plans to reopen businesses as well as houses of worship.
• Served on the state’s Reopen Florida Task Force that developed statewide reopening plans.
• Worked with the city manager to lead emergency operation efforts when hurricanes Dorian and Isaias threatened South Florida.
• Worked with the city manager to lead the immediate emergency response when the city was hit by a 1,000-year rainstorm and many neighborhoods flooded and then spearheaded recovery efforts. He persuaded state and federal officials to make a quick disaster declaration to open the way for assistance to clean up and rebuild.