MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Miami Beach Commissioner Steven Meiner persuaded commissioners to expand the city’s prosecution team.
Commissioners voted unanimously in support of his proposal on Thursday. He argued that without this more repeat offenders will continue to get away with crimes without consequence.
“I think our residents are demanding in a big way that we take steps not only to correct the problem that we have now but to make sure it doesn’t get worse,” Meiner said, adding “you can have all of the police officers out there deterring crime but if the criminals know there’s no consequence for the arrest, it really is not a deterrent.”
By expanding the city’s municipal prosecution team, Meiner said people who are arrested for battery, indecent exposure, and criminal mischief will have to pay for their crimes.
“I looked at a lot of the data and found that those were not being prosecuted to the extent that I think I and our residents would expect,” Meiner said, adding data shows the 165 misdemeanor battery arrests made in the first quarter of 2021 were dropped for 119 of them… and of the 23 criminal mischief arrests in that same time period, 10 were dropped.
First-quarter of 2021 data
Battery misdemeanors
1st quarter of 2021
- 165 arrests
- 119 not prosecuted (72%)
Criminal mischief misdemeanors
- 23 arrests
- 10 not prosecuted (43%)
Afternoon report