1. Career

2. Broward County Sheriff
    Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting 

3. Controversies

4. See also

5. References

Scott Israel was an American law enforcement officer who served as the 16th Sheriff of Broward County, Florida until his suspension on January 11, 2019 by an executive order signed by Governor Ron DeSantis.^[1][2] DeSantis appointed Gregory Tony to replace Israel.^[3] Notably, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting occurred in his jurisdiction while he was Sheriff. He became best known to the United States public following the shooting for openly advocating in public forums and on national media, more stringent background checks, and condemning the perceived lack of adequate gun control measures in Florida, as well as in the United States.

Career

Israel was born to a Jewish family in New York and raised in The Bronx and Long Island and is the son of a homicide detective. He studied political science at SUNY Cortland.^[4]

He became a patrol officer for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department in 1979.^[5] In the 1980's he was investigated for 10 incidents by Fort Lauderdale Police Department Internal Affairs division. The incidents included 6 accusations of "excessive or unnecessary force", shooting at a drug suspect and for using profanity. Israel was cleared of all wrongdoing. ^[6] He later worked in narcotics and later served as a SWAT commander. From 2004 to 2008, he was the chief of police in North Bay Village. He left that position in 2008 to run for Sheriff, but lost the election.^[5]

Broward County Sheriff

Israel was elected sheriff in 2012, running against incumbent Al Lamberti and reelected in 2016. He is the first Jewish-American sheriff in Florida’s history. He is known for being outspoken regarding gun violence and gun control, and opposes open carry legislation. In 2016, Israel began to implement a plan for deputies to have body cameras.^[5] In 2017, his office was criticized for failing to take control in the aftermath of the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting. According to a report issued by the Sheriff's Office, the failure was caused both by leadership issues and problems with communication systems.^[7] On January 11, 2019, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially [https://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/EO-19-14.pdf suspended] Israel for his responses to the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting and Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting

In the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Israel came under scrutiny for both for the actions of his deputies and his department's failure to act on warning signs about shooter Nikolas Cruz. On the day of the shooting, an armed sheriff's deputy was outside of the school but did not enter. Afterwards Israel criticized the deputy, saying that he should have "went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer".^[8] It was later discovered that there may have been at least two other deputies, that arrived later, who also did not enter the building.^[9] Coral Springs police officers who arrived at the scene were surprised to find that the deputies still had not entered the building.^[10] According to Israel, his agency had "been involved in 23 type calls involving the killer in some way, shape or form -- or his brother." However, through a Freedom of Information Act request CNN found that the sheriff's department had actually received 45 such calls about Cruz or his brother over the past decade.^[11] Israel has rejected calls for his resignation, including one from State representative Bill Hager.^[12]

On November 12, 2018 at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission's monthly meeting investigating the shooting, Sheriff Israel admitted that he had changed the Broward Sheriff's Office written policy on active shooters, changing one word in a critical sentence about deputies engaging active shooters from "shall" go in after the shooter, to "may" go in after the shooter. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a commissioner on the panel, admonished Sheriff Israel stating that "Words matter, and according to your policy, he did not have to go in". Judd was referring to Scot Peterson, the disgraced former Broward Sheriff's Office deputy assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as a school resource officer who resigned after it was revealed that he failed to enter the building to engage the shooter. Peterson had waited outside the building with his gun drawn while shots were being fired inside. Sheriff Israel's admission that he changed the verbiage of the active shooter policy clashed with his own statements at a news conference nine months earlier, just days after the shooting, when Sheriff Israel announced that Deputy Peterson was being suspended without pay because “He never went in.” At the time of the shooting on February 14, 2018, Israel's re-written active shooter policy in effect on the day of the shooting provided that Deputy Peterson did not have to go in, but that crucial information had not been brought to the public light until the commission meeting on November 15. ^[13][14] During the commission meeting as Sheriff Israel was being questioned, another Florida sheriff on the panel brought up that several of Israel's deputies on the scene of the shooting failed to take command, and seemed disengaged, or failed to act at all, driving back and forth outside the school during the shooting, or they were distracted, which eventually led to more disciplinary action against these deputies.

Controversies

Sheriff Israel has been criticized by his political opponents^[15], accused of hiring his political supporters to work in "community outreach" jobs that consist mostly of going to meetings, touting the Sheriff's Department's success. Ten such workers were hired since 2013, for salaries totaling $634,479.

Israel responded to criticism of his team with "lions don't care about the opinions of sheep," while also stating he doesn't spend more than ten seconds listening to his opponents' criticisms.^[15]

On April 20, 2018, the Broward Sheriff's Office Deputies Association opened a no-confidence vote for members, scheduled to conclude on April 26. This is the first no-confidence vote the union has brought against a sheriff.^[16] The no-confidence vote concluded 534–94 against Israel.^[17]

In May 2018, following the April vote of no-confidence, the Broward Sheriff's Office Deputies Association paid for a billboard just north of Sunrise Boulevard on Interstate 95 appealing to Governor Rick Scott and referencing their vote with the phrase "There is no confidence in Sheriff Israel". The association called for the governor to remove Israel following his handling of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.^[18]

See also

• Broward County Sheriff's Office

References

. https://www.politico.com/magazine/amp/story/2018/03/02/scott-israel-broward-county-sheriff-nra-217220

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