MIAMI — Water leaks from the ceiling, pipes drip and staff are left making do inside the City of Miami Police Department headquarters.
In some areas, a yellow emergency blanket has been turned into a drainage system. Windows are lined with black duct tape to keep rainwater out.
Local 10 News cameras inside the downtown building show the criminal investigations unit on the top floor and, below it, the evidence room -- both dealing with water issues.
“This area back here, this is where the water pools,” Miami Police Chief Manny Morales said.
Morales said repeated repairs have failed.
“We have made repairs that have failed again,” he said.
Ava Johnson, who has worked in the building for 28 years, described the conditions as unbearable.
“Something’s in the air here,” she said. “Smells like sewage.”
The downtown Miami Police headquarters is about 50 years old, and Morales said it has fallen into disrepair after decades of neglect.
“It’s a visualization of how we’ve kind of failed as a city keeping up the infrastructure,” he said.
Asked who is to blame, Morales said, “I don’t like to sit and talk… it wasn’t intentional.”
Miami’s new mayor Eileen Higgins called the conditions deplorable and is proposing a new police headquarters at the future home of City Hall next to Inter Miami’s new stadium at Miami Freedom Park.
The project would be funded through a $450 million bond, which voters would be asked to approve in August.
“Our bonding rate is the same,” Higgins said.
Some of that funding would also go toward improving conditions at city fire stations.
At Fire Station No. 1, which houses the city’s hazardous response team, mold is visible under an air conditioning unit.
At Fire Station No. 5, temporary fixes are also in place.
Fire Chief Robert Hevia said firefighters should not have to work in those conditions.
“Firefighters are expected to respond at a moment’s notice. When they come back, they get no break,” Hevia said. “We have to be able to give them a place to eat, a place to shower… bathrooms in a 24-hour period. And it should be comfortable. We’re asking for improvements -- normal improvements any person would have.”
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