Art Acevedo was never going to go away quietly.
Days after being fired from his job as Miami’s police chief, Acevedo — who became a national advocate for police reform during his time in Austin and Houston — spoke to NBC News and CNN about his brief, stormy tenure in Florida.
“It’s a pretty embarrassing episode in a 35-year career,” Acevedo told NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez in a brief segment on Monday. (Acevedo declined a request for an interview from the Chronicle).
The same day, he spoke to CNN anchor Erin Burnett about resistance from many law enforcement officers to getting vaccinated against COVID-19. He noted recent developments in Chicago, where more than a third of officers have defied orders from their mayor to report their vaccination status.
He also pointed to similar predicaments in Massachusetts and Los Angeles.
“A lot of folks are just making decisions not to take the vaccine,” Acevedo, 57, told Burnett. “And consequently, people are dying unnecessarily and I just wish people would just pay attention to the actual data out there.”
During the interview, he pleaded with officers to “take a step back.”
“Push the emotion side and just start getting the information from public health authorities and understand that we have a responsibility not just to ourselves and our families but we have a responsibility to the public whom we come in contact with every day,” he said.
He referenced the recent death of Houston Police officer John Wilbanks, who died from COVID on Oct. 13. His funeral was Monday.
“The hardest thing you can do as a police chief is having to go to one of your officer’s funerals,” he said Monday. “Houston just buried an officer today that unfortunately passed away from COVID and it’s something that, whether it’s a gunshot or it’s a virus, it is permanent and it’s fatal.”
Acevedo, who served as Houston’s police chief for four and a half years, joined the Miami Police Department in April, a surprise hire given he had never formally applied for the job. Miami’s mayor hailed Acevedo at the time as the Michael Jordan and Tom Brady of police chiefs.
His tenure was beset by controversy from the start. City commissioners were miffed by his unorthodox hiring decisions. Matters only worsened after a series of personnel moves, including demoting four majors and firing a married couple for failing to properly report damage to a city-owned vehicle.
City commissioners later used the incident to accuse Acevedo of hypocrisy after his city-owned SUV also suffered minor damage, and Acevedo apparently didn’t report it.
Then, during roll call, Acevedo made a comment to officers likening the department’s leadership to the “Cuban Mafia,” a term that was used by the late dictator Fidel Castro to describe Cuban exiles in Miami. City commissioners were outraged.
The comments prompted commissioners to hold two lengthy hearings blasting the chief. Acevedo, meanwhile, wrote a lengthy memo to his bosses accusing commissioners of corruption and misconduct, a move that all but sealed his doom.
The city’s mayor, Francis Suarez, withdrew his support, saying a situation “where a top city administrator is at war with city elected leadership is simply untenable and unsustainable.”
During a hearing on Thursday, commissioners voted to fire Acevedo. He did not testify at the meeting.
Acevedo’s attorney John Byrne said at the meeting there wasn’t enough time to build a case to properly defend his client.
“Based on what we have seen here today, it is clear the commissioners have not a valid basis for terminating Chief Acevedo,” Byrne said. He added that the reasons stated by the city manager were “pretextual” and that the real justification was the eight-page memo accused city commissioners of meddling in the police department and internal investigations.
Art Acevedo and his attorney, John R. Byrne, arrive at Miami City Hall for a hearing to determine whether he would remain Miami police chief, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. City commissioners later voted to fire Acevedo. Acevedo had served as Houston police chief for four and a half years before accepting the Miami post in April.
Marta Lavandier, STF / Associated Press“If chief Acevedo could say anything that would make any difference, he would. It’s very clear what’s going on,” Byrne said.
Two of the commissioners, also of Cuban descent, criticized Acevedo for not attending.
“He had the courage to write a false memo, full of lies,“ said Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla upon learning that Byrne rested his case during the trial-like proceeding without calling witnesses. “He should have the courage to stand up here and address this commission, the courage or the guts to do it.”
In his TV interviews, Acevedo briefly addressed the firing, saying that he regretted the “Cuban Mafia” statement, which he said commissioners used for “political gain” but that nevertheless offended some members of the exile community. Acevedo’s parents had fled Cuba’s Castro when he was 4.
He did not address whether he would fight his dismissal, noting to CNN that he had “put out a memo detailing some really serious concerns involving political leadership” and been fired as a consequence.
He gave little clue about his future plans, saying only that he planned to take a few weeks to think about future opportunities.
“I’m going to recharge for the next few weeks and then I am going to see what’s my path forward,” he told CNN. “Public service is in my DNA and I am hoping the future will bring an opportunity to continue serving the American people and the good men and women in law enforcement.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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