In a police department with a history of brutality, Captain Javier Ortiz holds a special distinction as Miamis least-fireable man with a badge, a gun and a staggering history of citizen complaints for beatings, false arrests and bullying.
Over his 17 years on the job including eight as the union president of the Fraternal Order of Police in South Florida 49 people have complained about him to Internal Affairs as he amassed 19 official use-of-force incidents, $600,000 in lawsuit settlements and a books worth of terrible headlines related to his record and his racially inflammatory social media posts, many of which attacked alleged victims of police violence.
Yet Ortiz has repeatedly beaten back attempts to discipline him. He returned to work in March from a yearlong paid suspension during which state and federal investigators examined whether he engaged in a pattern of abuse and bias against minorities, particularly African Americans [and] has been known for cyber-stalking and doxing civilians who question his authority or file complaints against him. The investigation was launched after three Miami police sergeants accused him of abusing his position and said the department had repeatedly botched investigations into him.
But investigators concluded their hands were tied because 13 of the 19 use-of-force complaints were beyond the five-year statute of limitations, and the others lacked enough hard evidence beyond the assertions of the alleged victims. The findings underscored a truism in many urban police departments: The most troublesome cops are so insulated by protective union contracts and laws passed by politicians who are eager to advertise their law-and-order bona fides that removing them is nearly impossible even when their own colleagues are witnesses against them.
The story of Ortiz shows the steep public costs of the way elected officials of both parties use the police to keep themselves covered politically: They can demand justice for victims after especially egregious acts of brutality, even while they support contracts and laws that protect officers accused of abuse. They can soothe the victims and at the same time enjoy the benefits of supportive police unions.
Ortizs reinstatement in March was no surprise to the many people in Miami who have watched him escape any meaningful punishment for years.
Ive known Javi for 15 years. One thing I realized: Wherever he is, you want to be nowhere near him. Hes done nefarious things, says Miami Police Lt. Jermaine Douglas, who once starred in the true-crime TV series The First 48, and more recently accused Ortiz of unfairly disciplining him, a complaint that was upheld by a civilian investigative panel.
Javi is a bad cop protected by bad leaders, adds Douglas. You can say its a bad system. The system itself is broken. But at some point, you have managers and leadership above him who are supposed to tame that, to address that.
But the bosses have claimed theres little they can do, either.
As a police officer with an encyclopedic knowledge of labor law and grievance procedures, Ortiz shielded himself over the years with the extensive protections woven into the local unions collective bargaining agreement and Floridas Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, a police-friendly law that passed decades ago and has been continuously beefed up with bipartisan support. He has also availed himself of a controversial judicial doctrine, called qualified immunity, which shields police from certain forms of liability.
Among the special provisions that have made policing Floridas police so difficult is a rule in the bill of rights that says all investigations must be wrapped up in 180 days. Critics say the rule is a vehicle for sympathetic colleagues to protect an officer simply by dragging their feet. In its review of Ortiz, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported that between 2013 and 2018 seven citizen complaints against him were voided because the department failed to finish investigating within the prescribed time limit.
An even more significant obstacle in the bill of rights is a rule that officers must be shown all evidence against them before they are interviewed about complaints a right that isnt afforded to civilians and that flies in the face of normal investigative techniques. It allows officers to tailor their responses to the evidence, avoid being caught in lies and even, says former Miami police chief Art Acevedo, interfere with the investigation or retaliate against witnesses.
Upon taking over the department last March, Acevedo reviewed Ortizs record and determined that the rules protected him. Unfortunately and fortunately for him [Ortiz] I could take no action, Acevedo says.
Instead, it was Acevedo, who once received national attention as the Houston police chief when he walked alongside Black Lives Matter protesters, who got fired Oct. 11 by the city manager after a spate of alleged offenses including making an insensitive comment about Cuban mafia in heavily Cuban Miami.
Now, the new acting chief, Manny Morales, is telling City Hall insiders that Ortiz has to go not because of his interactions with the public, but due to his repeated run-ins with other officers on the 1,300-member force.
On Thursday, Morales once again suspended Ortiz with pay his third time.