4 SEPTEMBER 5-11, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ MIAMI R.I.P. ACCOUNTABILTY MIAMI TO SHUT DOWN ITS POLICE CIVILIAN INVESTIGATIVE PANEL. BY ALEX DELUCA M iami The City of Miami will disband its two-decade-old Civilian Investigative Panel (CIP) to comply with a new state law. Rodney Jacobs, executive director of the CIP, tells New Times the city informed him yesterday of its decision to dissolve the Mi- ami Police Department (MPD) civilian over- sight panel in response to a new Florida law that severely limits the power of such boards by, among other restrictions, preventing them from investigating complaints of mis- conduct by law enforcement officers. When the law went into effect on July 1, Jacobs says, the CIP proposed relinquishing its investigative powers while keeping other functionalities intact, including its ability to review MPD’s orders and standard operating procedures before they’re enacted. He says the city refused to make any con- cessions. “They chewed on it for a bit and kind of came out with their decision thereafter,” Ja- cobs says, “which was to dissolve us in the entirety.” The panel’s final meeting was on June 18, two weeks before the new law took effect. Several meetings have been scheduled in the months since; they’ve all been canceled. In a statement sent to New Times, the city says that “the City of Miami is barred from allocating budget funds to a board whose main purpose and duties are contrary to Florida Statutes” as a consequence of the new law. “The new law permits the Miami Chief of Police to establish a new civilian oversight board to review the policies and procedures of the department and its subdivisions,” the statement reads. “Per the statute, the board must be composed of at least three and up to seven members appointed by the police chief, one of which shall be a retired law enforce- ment officer. The chief is in the process of es- tablishing the new oversight board that will comply with the new law.” Established in 2001 following public out- rage over a series of deadly shootings involv- ing Miami cops, the CIP is an oversight committee of everyday civilians that indepen- dently investigates complaints of police mis- conduct. While the 11-person panel isn’t empowered to discipline Miami police, it can propose recommendations to the department. In many of its investigations, the panel has used footage from body-worn cameras as- signed to police officers to draw conclusions about complaints. The CIP brought to light a number of violent police arrests over the years and frequently cited MPD officers who failed to follow department bodycam policy. As of December 2021, 21 Florida cities had civilian police review panels, many of which cropped up following the murder of George Floyd, according to a 2022 report from the Le- Roy Collins In- stitute, a nonpartisan statewide pol- icy institute at Florida State University. Amid news of other panels shuttering across the state, including in Orlando, it’s un- clear how many remain active today. As for the future of Miami’s CIP? “There’s still a little bit of a little bit of hope here,” Jacobs allows. He says the city’s first budget hearing is scheduled for September 7 and urges resi- dents to attend and speak up about the im- portance of the CIP, which he describes as a “free service to the people of the city.” “Let’s just say, hypothetically, all this does come to pass and we’re no longer in exis- tence, I think it’s going to be catastrophic consequences,” Jacobs says. “Maybe not to- day, maybe not tomorrow, but in a few weeks from now, in a few months, or even a few years from now, people are going to look to an organization like ours for police accountabil- ity and transparency.” | RIPTIDE | Photo by Jonathan DeCamps ▼ SUNRISE WINNING UGLY AI SAYS FLORIDA PANTHERS ARE NHL’S SECOND-UGLIEST TEAM. BY RYAN YOUSEFI S unrise. One would be hard-pressed to argue that the Florida Panthers’ trium- phant 2023-24 Stanley Cup season wasn’t beautiful. Unfortunately, according to sports-betting site TonyBet.com, which used an Attractiveness Test’s AI tool to rank 1,079 NHL players, individ- ual Panthers players’ physical beauty left much to be desired. According to TonyBet, the Panthers are the second-least attractive team in the NHL. Only the St. Louis Blues ranked uglier, with the Ottawa Senators, Anaheim Ducks, and New York Island- ers rounding out the bottom five. TonyBet’s Attractiveness Test AI took a hard look — or at the very least a programmed scan — at 1,079 NHL players to determine which teams are the league’s biggest heartthrobs and which...might not be. The tool crowned the Vancouver Canucks the NHL’s most attractive team, boasting an average score of 7.841 out of 10, with Nils Åman leading the way at a dash- ing 9.33. The Panthers, by contrast, earned a score of 7.185, with A.J. Greer coming in as the top Pan- ther at 8.74. If you casual Panthers fans out there are wondering who A.J. Greer is, you’re surely not alone — he just signed with Florida this past offseason and has yet to officially skate as a Panther. Typical swooning for the new guy at school — sad! A.J. Greer might be the Panther with the highest attractiveness score, but if you’re asking Panthers fans, AI clearly has no measure for Mat- thew Tkachuk’s swagger, Aaron Ekblad’s leader- ship skills, or Alexander Barkov’s calm composure. AI not being able to measure success in a man’s sexiness indicates that the robots aren’t close to taking over things. We have time to adapt. In a press release announcing the study, a To- nyBet spokesperson admitted that AI does not have the ability to look deep within the souls of our beloved Panthers to gauge what is inside. “Hockey entertains enthusiastic fans from across the world every season, with the 2024 Stanley Cup Final amassing 4.2 million viewers on ESPN. This study has highlighted the most attrac- tive teams within the sport,” the spokesperson said before admitting this election was rigged. “While the players’ physical appearances do not necessarily impact their performance, it may kindle their popularity within the fanbase and, in turn, lead to more opportunities and sponsor- ships for hockey teams outside of the rink.” Luckily, for the next nine months, the Florida Panthers and their fans can simply point to the fact that no matter how sexy ChatGPT thinks they are, NHL records will always show that last season’s roster was the most desirable in the league. And if we had to guess, had the most success on the, um, dating scene this offseason. [email protected] GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS Photo by Michele Eve Sandberg “PEOPLE ARE GOING TO LOOK TO AN ORGANIZATION LIKE OURS FOR POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY.” Miami police arrest protesters in June 2020 during protests over the police killing of George Floyd. Who you calling ugly?
