MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Miami Beach Police Chief Daniel Oates spoke to Local 10 News Friday about the latest scandal in his department.
At a news conference Thursday, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said more than a dozen police officers sent racist and sexually explicit images via their work email, as well as a photo of an autopsy.
Oates said they went through about a million emails that were all sent or received by 16 officers.
Oates said the emails were sent during the previous administration from 2010-2012. He said when he was brought in as chief last year, one of the supervisors approached him, saying they knew about these emails and felt the matter wasn't properly investigated.
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Oates said former Maj. Angel Vazquez, who retired last year, and Lt. Alex Carulo, who was fired Thursday, were the people who sent the emails to officers throughout the department.
Oates described Vazquez as someone who could be vindictive and someone who you don't want to cross.
He said Carulo had a lot of people working for him, and most of the inappropriate emails were sent to his subordinates.
The chief stressed that there is an air of frustration within the organization, because he said the department is loaded with good cops and these past events keep shedding a negative light.
"It's a tough time here. I just want everybody to know that I have a great cops and they're doing a great job every single day," Oates said. "This event is terrible. I largely blame the people who we talked about, and to the extent we need to have some conversation about what we're going to do differently going forward."
Prosecutors are investigating if the autopsy photo that was released violated Florida statute. They said the 16 police officers in question are listed as witnesses in more than 500 cases, which could be affected by the investigation.
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