Commissioner Meiner placed a referral to the Neighborhood and Quality of Life Committee (NQLC) on the December 08, 2021 City Commission Meeting agenda to discuss options to more effectively secure the sworn testimony of victims who reside out-of-town through which to further aid in the prosecution of offenders committing crimes in the City of Miami Beach. 

The securing of sworn testimony by visitors who are victims of crime within the City of Miami Beach has been the topic of numerous stakeholder meetings over the past year. Two routes are currently utilized depending on whether the crime committed was considered a felony or a misdemeanor.

When a felony is committed and assigned to an investigator of the Miami Beach Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division (CID), all pertinent witnesses and victims are interviewed so long as they are willing, regardless if they are physically present in the city or not. If a victim has left the city, modern technologies such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc., can be and are used to capture his or her sworn statements. To date when a victim or witness wishes to cooperate, the Miami Beach Police Department has not experienced any issues in acquiring statements as a result of his or her physical location.

In cases involving misdemeanor crimes not typically assigned to investigators in CID, the Department relies on the responding Patrol Officers to gather statements and ensure they are included in the respective reports. The Department’s policy (SOP #108) allows for written statements by Patrol Officers, and a “Sworn Written Statement” form can be used for this purpose. The Department believes this to be the most efficient method to provide the State with the sworn statement of victims/witnesses involved in misdemeanor cases.

In misdemeanor crimes, the potential use of Body-Worn Cameras (BWC) to record statements has been suggested. The Department feels that at this time, this method of statement capturing would be inefficient because the capacity of the Support Services Division is limited and not equipped to handle an increased volume of video requests made by the State Attorney’s Office. An “Arrest Affidavit” (A-Form) accompanied by a “Written Sworn Statement” form is entirely sufficient for the prosecution of the case with the proper cooperation of the victim and witnesses.