SGT. BENKOCZY: "AS IT TURNED OUT, THE STATE ATTORNEY SAW TO IT THAT THIS BEHAVIOR STOPPED RATHER ABRUPTLY"
BUT COULD SUPERVISORS HAVE DONE ANYTHING ON THEIR OWN? CHIEF OF POLICE WAS PUBLICLY SAYING THAT HE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A DOZEN MORE OFFICERS LIKE FLOWERS. WOULD THEY HAVE CHALLENGED THE CHIEF?
While Police Chief Buz Dillon was publicly praising former Police Lt. Al Flowers, a group of departmental supervisors were so concerned about Flowers' controversial style of policing that they called him into a meeting to warn him that his sometimes over-the-top behavior had to stop or they would take action that could include removing him from the force.
Over the years, Flowers had developed a reputation of piling on charges that sometimes resulted in those stopped for routine traffic checks being roughed up and jailed. Flowers once arrested and jailed a man feeding cats in Bayview Park after curfew. He once had two men in the same car arrested and jailed for allegedly driving drunk. This newspaper documented an instance in which Flowers fibbed in court about a charge he had piled on— and two internal affairs investigators covered it up.
Last March, Flowers was forced to resign from the Police Department to avoid facing charges of official misconduct. The State Attorney accused him of ordering a subordinate to falsify an arrest affidavit that charged a suspect with a felony he didn't commit.
The police supervisors' confrontation with Flowers was revealed last week by Sgt. Jim Benkoczy, in a letter prepared for publication in the Key West Citizen. That letter appeared in the Citizen yesterday.
"I, along with six other patrol supervisors and the patrol commander, were in an unprecedented meeting with Lt. Flowers for the sole purpose of confronting him and putting him on notice that his style of supervision and antiquated methods of policing will no longer be tolerated in this department and that the supervisors in that room would see to it that this behavior stop immediately or he would be held accountable, up to and including removal from office," Benkoczy wrote.
He was responding to a letter from Attorney Warren Tochterman that had appeared in the Citizen on June 19. Benkoczy had spoken at a public meeting on June 6, arguing that most citizens do not want a citizens police review board.
"I think you are wrong about the citizens of Key West not wanting a review board— the populace does in fact want a review board, and I will tell you why," Tochterman wrote.
"It's your fault. Being one of the good guys, which I have heard and believe you are, where were you when this wrongdoing and coverup were taking place? It is good officers like you, who do nothing when confronted by bad officers doing bad things, that allow relations between the department and the public to sour and fester . . .
"The whole process starts with you guys, the good police officers, demanding that bad cops be terminated."
Benkoczy hand-carried a copy of his letter to Key West The Newspaper's offices last Friday. In that letter, he also argued that "it is clearly understood by the entire patrol division that any misconduct by a fellow officer be brought to the attention of a supervisor immediately for appropriate action."
But when a young officer brought the Flowers incident to the attention of internal affairs, the report was ignored. Flowers was charged only after another officer brought the incident to the attention of the State Attorney last year. The State Attorney took action— but the officer who tattled was forced to resign.
When another young officer reported that he saw Officer Michael Beerbower repeatedly punch a handcuffed suspect in the face, his report was ignored by the KWPD. But when other officers learned that he had blown the whistle on Beerbower, they reportedly made life so uncomfortable for the young officer that he resigned.
During that period, police officials were concerned enough about Beerbower's "abusive behavior" to assign him to a more experienced officer for evaluation. That officer was Sgt. Jim Benkoczy. Benkoczy— who must have known that another officer had reported seeing Beerbower punch a handcuffed suspect— cleared Beerbower to return to duty.
Beerbower was charged only after the State Attorney got wind of what he had done. To avoid a trial, Beerbower accepted a deal that gave him probation and a one-month suspension without pay. He is serving that suspension in days spread over three months. See story on page 3.
After receiving the copy of Benkoczy's letter here at KWTN, the following questions were faxed over to Benkoczy:
1. When and where was your meeting with Flowers? What time of day or night did it take place? Who called the meeting?
2. How long was the meeting?
3. Was the meeting called in response to some specific incident in which Flowers was involved? If so, what was the nature of that incident and when did it happen?
4. What was the tone of the meeting? What was Flowers' reaction?
5. You say that "the supervisors in that room would see to it that this behavior stop immediately" . . . or else. What could you and the others possibly have done in light of the Chief's public comments that he wished he had a dozen officers like Flowers?
At presstime Thursday, Benkoczy had not responded.