(Bianca Marcof for Biscayne Times)
A painted “Welcome to Historic Overtown” greets visitors entering the neighborhood.
As historic Overtown reclaims its place as the center of Black life and culture in Miami through the rise of new and revamped residential buildings, businesses and entertainment venues funded largely by the Southeast Overtown/Park West Community Redevelopment Agency (SEOPW CRA), it has also begun to attract visitors of all races and incomes.
The influx of people has raised concerns about whether or not there’s enough police presence to ensure everyone’s safety and – with a new resolution passed by the city – more police are making their way to the neighborhood.
In June of last year, the SEOPW CRA board of commissioners, funded by a portion of property taxes within its boundaries, adopted a resolution to award a $600,000 grant to the Miami Police Department. The money was intended to pay for more policing and the purchase of new cameras and additional lighting for targeted areas.
(Bianca Marcof for Biscayne Times)
Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster Overtown serves comfort food that celebrates the roots of American cuisine.
The resolution was passed by the Miami City Commission on a voice vote without discussion on Feb. 10, 2022. The money will fund two law enforcement positions, called BEAT officers, to the Overtown Support Team to focus on preventing crime and the “removal of slum and blight conditions.” They will patrol the following listed “areas of concern”:
· NW 1st Avenue to NW 3rd Court from NW 5th to NW 14 streets
· The Red Rooster Overtown restaurant
· Lyric Theater and Plaza at the Lyric Apartments
· Theodore Gibson Park
· Kwik Stop at NW 2nd Avenue between 11th and 12th streets
The grant will also provide detectives for the department’s Real Time Crime Center to monitor surveillance cameras
(Bianca Marcof for Biscayne Times)
An officer views multiple video monitors at Miami PD’s Real Time Crime Center.
within the neighborhood and target individuals trespassing, loitering and “prowling” in front of stores and residences; individuals in vehicles and bicycles without headlights or other traffic infractions; people engaging in criminal activity; and gang suspects or those with active warrants.
James McQueen, the CRA’s executive director, says that in order to have a thriving community in Overtown, people should feel safe, whether it be those coming from outside the community or those living within it. And as more residents and visitors come to Overtown in the midst of remodeling older buildings and developing new ones, the increase in population should be reflected in the presence of police.
“If we increase police presence, if we add cameras, if we do other things of that nature, people begin to say, ‘OK, let me go and visit this restaurant. Let me go and visit this clothing store. Let me go to the grocery store,’” he said.
The Question of Crime
Adding police is about changing long-festering negative perceptions about the historic Black community, he continued, and brought up the Overtown Music & Arts Festival, which garnered street crowds as large as 10,000 people to hear various genres of music, as an example. In the time it was held before the pandemic, there were no police arrests or criminal incidents connected to the event, only the rare instance of paramedics having to be called for someone fainting from the heat.
“I feel safer in Overtown than I do in a lot of communities across Miami-Dade County but the perception has been that it is not a safe environment, when the reality is, that is not necessarily correct,” he said.
Perception vs. Reality
Whether or not increased crime in Overtown is perception or reality is currently unverifiable. The Biscayne Times requested five years of crime data for the area from Miami PD, but was hit with a bill required to be paid up front before the data would be compiled. Even then, Miami PD wasn’t going to be able to pull the crime stats by our print deadline.
Christopher Norwood, founder of Hampton Art Lovers at Overtown’s Historic Ward Rooming House, says that he hasn’t seen any crime in the area but agrees it’s important for those new to the neighborhood to see a police presence. That will make them feel better about an area they deem is unsafe, when it is truly the opposite.
He questions whether people walking around at night in hot spots like Wynwood, Brickell, Miami Beach or the Miami Design District are as concerned with their personal safety as they would be if doing the same in Overtown.
“This district, through food and entertainment, we’re trying to build a destination,” Norwood said. “The vision is that
(Courtesy of Christopher Norwood)
Christopher Norwood, curator and founder of Hampton Art Lovers at the Historic Ward Rooming House.
you can come look at the art at the Ward Rooming House, see a performance at the Lyric Theater, have dinner at Red Rooster, and then join the vendors and enjoy the outdoor entertainment at The Urban. We’ve been able to create a space where people can do those things and do it safely without incident. But I think you still have to work on breaking down people’s mental barriers.”
Red Rooster declined to be interviewed for this story. Kamila Pritchett, the operations and programming manager of the Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater, provided the following written statement and said she could not comment further:
“The Lyric Theater has been an anchor in the Overtown community since 1913. Since we reopened the Lyric Theater in 2014, we haven’t experienced any issues with criminal activity.”
A Grant to Hire More Cops
(Manuel Morales Via Twitter)
Manuel Morales, Interim Miami Police Chief
Another agenda item that was passed last month at a commission meeting calls for the “2021-2022 Cops Hiring Program” to bring on 15 new law enforcement officers with a grant award from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services – a grant Miami PD frequently receives.
The current award amounts to $1,875,000 to cover the salaries and fringe benefits of the newly hired officers for three years. However, the local match required for the grant is $2,860,991, which the city is responsible for funding.
Meanwhile, Miami PD is in the process of doing background checks and processing all applicants from their successful recruitment drive in December. The department received 1,000 applications in just 8 hours. Selected applicants will fill those 15 positions the department is looking to add, as well as existing vacant positions.
Interim Police Chief Manny Morales says some of the new hires will increase the number of staff trained in crisis intervention and add to its Homeless Empowerment Assistant Team (HEAT), which works to get housing insecure people off the street and into shelters. He wants it to have seven-day-a-week coverage.
“We see that there’s a very close connection between homelessness and not only substance addiction, but mental illness,” Morales said. “We’re focusing on crisis intervention and responding to calls involving individuals that are suffering from mental illness.”
(Courtesy of David Peery)
David Peery, Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity.
David Peery, an advocate for homeless rights leading the Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity, does not believe the HEAT team is effective in ending or reducing homelessness. On the contrary, he feels additional funding to the unit is a “misuse of police resources when they should be dedicated toward combating real crimes like physical assaults and property crimes, not social issues.”
Peery says homelessness, and to a large extent behavioral and substance abuse issues, are not criminal issues and that officers should not be acting as case managers or crisis intervention professionals. Instead, mental and behavioral health professionals should be on the frontlines of situations like loitering on public property or someone screaming incoherently.
“We’re not going to arrest our way out of homelessness and police officers should not be acting as case managers or as crisis intervention professionals,” Peery said.
Morales says police may criminalize behavior by a person who happens to be homeless, not arrest people simply for being homeless. And with this funding, officers would be able to treat people in crisis with the dignity, respect and compassion they deserve, while reducing the use of force and the likelihood that anyone gets hurt.
“It will robustly help out our numbers of individuals who are not only trained but are assigned exclusively to handle some of the most pressing issues that we’re seeing now on the streets,” he said. “We’re dealing with individuals who are in crisis.”