As the city continues to deal with and recover from COVID-19 related spikes and closures, the Miami Beach Police Department (MBPD) has continued to track a decrease in crime year over year. This has shown to be consistent across the city and even more noticeable within the Art Deco Cultural District (ADCD). The Department’s efforts in police visibility coupled with strategic enforcement have led to a noticeable change, all of which will be further enhanced as the Spring Break period approaches. The attached Crime Statistics Dashboard numbers provide concrete data showing the decrease in reported crime.

Since the Department’s last report in October 2021, a few holiday and event weekends have taken place, all successfully. While the New Year’s Eve weekend proved a substantially busy one, proper planning and an increased staffing plan mitigated increased visitors and traffic issues along the busier Collins Avenue corridor.

Art Deco Weekend saw a well-attended series of events once again well-mitigated within the ADCD via enhanced and dedicated staffing.

Followed by yet another high-volume weekend, the Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend was well-organized and proactive along all City causeways in an effort to prevent any reckless behavior of vehicles to include ATVs and off-road bicycles. No significant issues were noted or reported throughout the weekend.

The first weekend in February saw the Life Time Miami Marathon and Tropical 5K events with much success to the City. The event caused minimal traffic interruptions and with the correct proactive mitigation had no related calls for service or problems.

The Department entered the Spring Break period with a full mobilization of police personnel beginning on February 22 through April 3, 2022. The first two weekends in March were successful and well attended with the City-sponsored Miami Beach LIVE concert series. Despite significant staffing deployments to include support from outside agencies, the weekend of March 18-20 saw two random acts of gunfire where five people were struck by bullets. The following weekend, the City Manager enacted a State of Emergency imposing a midnight curfew and ordering the closing of businesses south of 23rd Street from the ocean to the bay and a restriction on the sale of package liquor after 6pm for the same area. This resulted in the elimination of the congregation of revelers along public spaces that lent itself to an environment that was conducive to the events of the previous week.

The Spring Break deployment concluded successfully on Sunday April 3 and the department transitioned to supporting the Miami Beach Gay Pride activations as well as the Bitcoin 2022 Conference that was held at the Miami Beach Convention Center both of which were well-attended with higher crowds than expected and successfully carried out without incident. Planning is underway to support the upcoming Miami Grand Prix Formula 1 race and satellite events associated with it, as well as the Aspen Ideas Conference and the Salute to America’s Heroes Air and Sea Show during Memorial Day Weekend.