On May 14, 2025, CBS Miami reporter Chelsea Jones broke the “bombshell” story that the North Miami Beach Police Department has lost its accreditation for the first time since 1977.
This would be the same Chelsea Jones who literally gushed over the Department’s ex-Police Chief Harvette Smith’s January 2, 2025 retirement and “illustrious career,” while glossing over the reality that Smith had been placed on administrative leave more than a year earlier.
Coincidence?
We think not.
Since no other local news station picked up this unremarkable “news” story, it was obviously leaked by a certain someone with an ax to grind in the hopes that the current police administration would be cast as the villain.
That certain someone just might have wanted to pin the blame on North Miami Beach Chief of Police, Juan Pinillos, who became the Acting Police Chief a mere seven months ago, and who was only appointed permanently three months later on January 31, 2025.
Anyone not familiar with the law enforcement accreditation process in Florida — a sympathetic member of the media, perhaps — might jump to that erroneous conclusion.
A May 25, 2024 report by Certified Accreditation Professional Doug Robertson, however, tells a much different story.
But first, let’s take a look at the all the events that led up to — and the individuals directly responsible for — this debacle.
In order to maintain accreditation, law enforcement agencies in Florida are assessed every three years. The current three-year cycle for the North Miami Beach Police Department is, as follows:
Year 1: April 2022 to April 2023
Year 2: April 2023 to April 2024
Year 3: April 2024 to April 2025
These dates are extremely important to remember, so keep them in mind.
Once upon a time, the North Miami Beach Police Department was the envy of South Florida, achieving Excelsior status by The Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation, Inc. (CFA) three times in a row over the course of nine years.
Excelsior status is achieved by agencies that have “demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the Florida accreditation process,” which CFA defines as: “Commitment to Accreditation – Candidate agencies shall have been awarded five successful reaccreditation cycles by the Commission.”
The North Miami Beach Police Department was first recognized for Excelsior status in June of 2013.
The NMBPD went on to achieve Excelsior status for the second time in July of 2016, and again three years later in July of 2019.
Today our command staff met with the commission for Florida law enforcement accreditation. It is our pleasure to announce that we have once again achieved the excelsior status! We have been an accredited law enforcement agency for over 22 years. #316 pic.twitter.com/rbEyPKIiJ2
— North Miami Beach PD (@myNMBPolice) June 26, 2019
Then it all went to hell when the November 17, 2020 Runoff Election resulted in a corrupt, four-Criminal Commissioner majority, who six months later, voted to hire Arthur “Duke” Sorey, indisputably the most corrupt and incompetent City Manager in the entire state of Florida, as City Manager.
As we reported in Unprofessional, uncouth, unpolished, undignified. Please welcome NMB’s new City Manager, Arthur “Duke” Sorey!:
“Under the outstanding leadership of [now-former] Police Chief Richard Rand, there is no doubt that the North Miami Beach Police Department is on its way to achieving this honor for the fourth time in 2022.
Unless, of course, Arthur “Duke” Sorey screws everything up by bringing in his second rate police cronies from North Miami — just because he can.
As everyone knows, elections have consequences.”
Sadly, we were right.
The City of North Miami Beach suffered the most severe consequences of any election in its entire 94-year history at the time.
And just as we predicted, four years later we took absolutely no pleasure when reporting, The downfall of the North Miami Beach Police Department, courtesy of Duke Sorey!, in which we wrote:
“With the “help” of ex-Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard, Duke’s hiring of unqualified rookies based on skin color helped turn the once esteemed NMBPD into the veritable sh*t show it has become.
Keep in mind that Duke’s main objective for North Miami Beach was to make it a “black city.” He said so himself at a directors’ meeting when they were reviewing the job applications for a Capital Improvement Program Manager. He literally announced that even though one candidate stood out as the most qualified for the position, he “couldn’t hire a Brazilian in a black city.”
One of Duke’s first casualties was Police Chief Richard Rand, a 25-year veteran who diligently worked his way up the proverbial corporate ladder. As we reported in North Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Rand “resigns.” At gun point. (Figuratively speaking, of course.), Chief Rand was forced to retire … or be fired.
Duke then appointed Harvette Smith as Interim Chief because, well, she checked all the boxes.”
We also sadly reported how Harvette Smith carried on Duke’s legacy of corruption even after he was fired for cause, including and especially her targeted harassment against the now-former 17-year veteran, Sergeant Karl Anderson, and even blocked his much deserved promotion to Captain. Sergeant Anderson, whom Harvette “allegedly” called a “cracker” in private, was so distressed by her treatment of him that he the decided to cut his losses and buy his way into an early retirement in December of 2023.
Unfortunately, he did so only five days before Harvette was placed on administrative leave when she found herself under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) for falsifying documents. If only he had known she was on her way out the door, he may have made a different decision, but by then it was too late. His retirement papers were already filed.
Sergeant Anderson did, however, get the last word in an incredible video he published on YouTube, Unbecoming/Full Documentary, in which he blew the whistle on all the vile corruption that had come to a head at the North Miami Beach Police Department since at least 2020, when Duke Sorey came to town.
WATCH!
The good news is that last December, Karl Anderson filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against Harvette Smith and the City of North Miami Beach, which will be the topic of another blog.
Suffice it to say, start popping the corn!
Meanwhile, on December 16, 2024 we made a Public Records Request from the FDLE for a copy of the investigative report and file. Other than an acknowledgment of our request two days later, we have yet to receive any documents.
We also made a public records request from the Miami State Attorney’s Office for its Close-Out Memo, but as we already know, and predicted, Katherine Fernandez Rundle “declined to prosecute” — because Harvette is neither Cuban nor Republican.
She is, however, a card carrying member of a privileged class.
But, according to Chelsea Jones, CBS Miami reporter and member in good standing of the Harvette Smith Fan Club, the disgraced ex-Police Chief was “exonerated” and “cleared of any criminal wrongdoing” by the equally corrupt State Attorney Kathy Rundle.
Seems legit.
Now, let’s circle back to the loss of the NMBPD’s accreditation, and those dates that we asked you to keep in mind.
Here is the timeline of events:
- April 22, 2021: Duke Sorey is hired
- March 22, 2022: Duke appoints Harvette Smith as Interim Chief
- April, 2022: Year 1 of the accreditation cycle begins
- July 7, 2022: Duke appoints Harvette as permanent Chief
- February 21, 2023: Duke is fired
- April, 2023: Year 2 of the accreditation cycle begins
- December 7, 2023: Harvette is placed on administrative leave
- December, 2023: Harvette’s crony, Nelson Camacho is appointed as Acting Chief
- April, 2024: Year 3 of the accreditation cycle begins
- May 20, 2024: City hires an accreditation consultant
- May 24, 2024: Consultant presents his report to the City
- October, 2024: Acting Chief Nelson Camacho takes a leave of absence from the NMBPD
- October, 2024: Juan Pinillos is appointed as Acting Chief
- November, 2024: Juan Pinillos is appointed as Interim Chief
- January, 2025: Juan is appointed as permanent Chief
- April, 2025: Three-year accreditation cycle ends
- May, 2025: The North Miami Beach Police Department has not met the requirements to be re-accredited with the CFA.
The above timeline clearly shows that ex-Police Chief Harvette Smith was responsible for maintaining the department’s accreditation standards for 20 of the 36 months in the 3-year cycle.
Her successor and co-conspirator, Nelson Camacho, was responsible for the next 10 months of the cycle, during which time an accreditation consultant was hired, albeit too little, too late. The consultant’s report was so devastating to the then-current police administration that Camacho must have realized he would be at least partially blamed for the debacle because he took a leave of absence.
Juan Pinillos was then appointed as Acting Chief with only 6 months left in the accreditation cycle. By this time, however, the department’s attempt at reaccreditation was already a lost cause.
In his Executive Summary, accreditation consultant Doug Robertson noted that he contracted with the City of North Miami Beach on May 20, 2024 and was “tasked with assessing the department’s readiness for the 2025 reaccreditation assessment.”
He then described his role and his method of review, which “revealed several critical findings regarding the North Miami Beach Police Department’s compliance with the updated CFA Standards Manual 5.21,” as follows:
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- Overall Compliance:
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- Only 16% of the assessment has been completed sufficiently to be considered in compliance with the standards.
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- Written Directives:
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- 137 standards, or 58% of the standards that require a written directive, had none available for review. This indicates a significant gap in documented policies and procedures necessary for compliance.
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- Multi-Year Proofs of Compliance:
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- Of the 89 standards (43%) that require multi-year proofs of compliance, only 35 had adequate proofs to demonstrate compliance in year 2 [while Harvette was Chief] of the cycle. This shortfall highlights issues in maintaining consistent records over multiple years. [Emphasis ours.]
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The accreditation consultant concluded:
“The findings contained herein underscore the need for immediate corrective actions, including the documentation of necessary written directives and the establishment of reliable systems for tracking and demonstrating multi-year compliance.
It became evident early in the review process that little, if any, maintenance had been conducted on the assessment files since early 2023. At this stage in the accreditation cycle, an agency’s assessment should reflect at least an 88% compliance rate. However, the findings indicated significant gaps in compliance and documentation.
In addition to the identified deficiencies in compliance and documentation, it was evident that the previous incumbent lacked the expertise and experience necessary to effectively manage the accreditation process. This observation underscores the importance of having qualified personnel in key roles within the department, especially those responsible for overseeing accreditation processes.”
Clearly, “the previous incumbent” mentioned in the report is none other than Harvette Smith, who is finally on the receiving end of a well deserved bitch-slapping.
The irony here is that before Duke promoted Harvette over more qualified and higher ranking candidates — because she “looked like him,” she was in charge of maintaining the accreditation standards of the Police Department. Considering the fact that the NMBPD had been awarded Excelsior status three consecutive times, Harvette was consistently praised for her job performance.
The minute she became Chief of Police, however, she no longer cared about excellence or professionalism, and the Department started falling apart.
When City Manager Mario Diaz was first hired he had the opportunity to clean house and hire a qualified Police Chief, but he was terrified of firing an employee who was black — even though she was only promoted because she was black.
Unfortunately, by allowing Harvette to stay on as Chief, Mario only prolonged the rampant culture of corruption, incompetence, and racism with which his predecessor had infected the City and its formerly outstanding Police Department.
Even more unfortunate is the fact that more than two years later, the City of North Miami Beach is still suffering from the fallout of Duke Sorey’s reign of terror, including and especially, its beleaguered Police Department.
Due to an ineffectual City Manager, a criminal Mayor, and a mostly useless City Commission, the chances of a recovery and turnaround seem exceedingly slim.
We have very little sympathy, though.
North Miami Beach residents were cautioned as far back as 2020 that elections have consequences, but they refused to heed our warnings.
They now have the government they voted for, and unfortunately, it’s the one they deserve.
Good luck with that.
Stephanie
Oh, what a total surprise! NMBPD lost its accreditation. I mean, who could have possibly seen that coming? Certainly not anyone who lived through the chaotic soap opera that was the former chief’s reign of error. No, this news was just the cherry on top of a very moldy cake.
You’d think that once Sorey was finally shown the exit, a city manager with a pulse might have done, I don’t know, his job? Maybe talked to the commissioners who pushed for Diaz in the first place? Or, here’s a wild idea, listened to former employees or officers? But nah. That would’ve required effort and, heaven forbid, foresight.
And oh, Unbecoming, remember that charming documentary? Practically a neon billboard screaming “WARNING: DO NOT IGNORE,” and still, our leadership collectively shrugged like it was a romcom.
Meanwhile, Smith was sitting at home for over a year, drawing a full salary, while under investigation. Because naturally, when someone’s being investigated, the logical move is to keep paying them and ask zero questions. Genius level stuff here. It’s not like their crime was so offensive, they couldn’t work from home.
And now, in what can only be described as performance art, the commission just voted to give the manager 20 weeks of severance for resigning. Yes, resigning. Because apparently learning on the job, not being in touch with the PD, playing a shell game with city funds deserves a standing ovation and a golden parachute.
Just wait until the residents get the rest of the story. Popcorn-worthy doesn’t even cover it.
We miss your voice, Stephanie. Since you stopped writing, the city’s been stuck in Groundhog Day, but grimmer and with more incompetence. No matter who’s warming the dais chairs, it’s the same sludge in a new bucket. Every time we think we’ve chosen better, the universe says, “lol, cute.”
Thank you for missing me, but after the corrupt Michael Joseph and the even more corrupt Hans Ottinot conspired to (successfully) frame former Mayor Tony DeFillipo for a non-crime, my Give-A-Shit-O-Meter started sputtering.
Once NMB voters stupidly elected the corrupt Michael Joseph as mayor, I was done.
Granted, the former mayor, Evan Piper, was uninspiring as mayor and even worse as a candidate for re-election, the fact that residents saw a criminal as a viable alternative was just beyond the pale.
The nail in the proverbial coffin, however, was the downfall of the best police department in the entire State of Florida, and the attempt to pin the blame on Chief Juan Pinillos was enough to bring me out of my self-imposed “retirement” for the purpose of defending his honor.
Chief Pinillos is by far one of the most honorable and professional law enforcement officers in not only NMB, but in any other agency, bar none. I will not stand by and watch him be disparaged by the likes of people who are not fit to shine his shoes.
Other than that, NMB residents are on their own. They made their choice, and far be it for me to try to get them to see the error of their ways. I’m done.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
Voter fraud isn’t a crime??
Of course, it is. But in Miami-Dade County it’s impossible to prove because the State Attorney is corrupt and has been known to enlist the services of ballot fraudsters for her own benefit. Allegedly, of course.