MIAMI – Miami’s top cop says this isn’t so much a stolen guns issue, rather, bad housekeeping. Either way, it’s not a good look and he’s laying down the law within his own ranks.
A source provided Local 10 News with a copy of the internal “rifle audit” memo sent out to the Miami police force. It shows that 25 rifles owned by the Miami Police Department are “unaccounted for.”
“Effective May 17th, these rifles will be reported stolen,” the memo says.
The memo includes a list of serial numbers and directs officers to verify the numbers on their own patrol rifles.
If they match any on the list, those guns “should be returned to the quartermaster unit immediately.”
“Whatever firearm is not found will be reported — entered into the system lost or stolen — and whoever we find after that with it will have to suffer the consequences,” Chief Art Acevedo said Friday.
Acevedo, who was sworn in April 5, directed that memo be sent after learning the 25 patrol rifles were missing.
“I don’t think this is a matter of theft, I think this is a matter of poor checks and balances, a matter of poor records-keeping and oversight,” Acevedo said.
As of Friday, the chief said about half a dozen of the missing rifles had been accounted for.
When Local 10 caught up with him Monday, he said: “They’re starting to pop up. We’re going to check a couple more traps to see if we find any more because I think a lot of this is just really sloppy stuff that people aren’t paying attention to details. Details matter in our business.”
It’s not known exactly how many of the initial 25 rifles are still unaccounted for, or what, if any, disciplinary actions have or will be taken. But Acevedo says an investigation was launched into how these weapons went missing.
The chief says command staff will be doing a full audit of all critical equipment, including firearms and computers.
The chief says in the next 24-48 hours, whatever rifles are still missing will be entered into a database as stolen.