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As Controversies Swirl, Broward Sheriff’s Office Tweets Tone-Deaf Photo of Fancy Sports Car

Sarah Rumpf

Image via @browardsheriff on Twitter.

If there were Olympic medals awarded for cluelessness, the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) would take home the gold. As the agency has been the focus of criticism for failures before, during, and after the February 14th shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the agency — and its leader Broward Sheriff Scott Israel — have repeatedly appeared out of touch. The latest activity on the BSO Twitter account is a frustratingly perfect illustration of this.

Despite Israel’s shocking boast to the media that he had exhibited “amazing leadership” as sheriff, the reality has fallen far short.

An incomplete recap of the infuriating news reports coming from Broward County includes dozens of visits to the shooter’s home by BSO deputies that never resulted in an arrest, the county’s policy of avoiding juvenile arrests even for serious and violent crimes, the failure of BSO deputies to enter the school during the shooting and engage the shooter, Israel’s efforts in the aftermath of the shooting to demonize the NRA and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) at a CNN townhall and scapegoat his own deputies, the shooter’s brother being arrested on campus barely a month later and a BSO deputy getting caught sleeping in his car while on duty that same day at Stoneman Douglas…I could go on.

It was little surprise that the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association delivered a landslide “no confidence” vote against Israel in April, asking Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) to remove him from his office.

Seventeen students and teachers were killed, and seventeen more injured in the February 14th shooting, and local and national media have dropped a torrent of stories about incompetence at the BSO virtually every single week since.

So if you’re the BSO, what kind of outreach do you try to show your community you take seriously the job of keeping them safe?

If you said, get a shiny new sports car and tweet about it, you should send your resume to Sheriff Israel, because you’ll fit right in.

Seriously. That’s what they did last night, tweeting a photo of a shiny new metallic green Dodge Charger.

“Our new [Dodge Charger],” said the tweet. “Do you like the paint job?”

It’s not entirely clear how the BSO acquired the car, whether it was purchased outright, the subject of a civil asset forfeiture, or donated. I reached out to the BSO Public Information Officer to ask but have not yet received a reply.

The car has the front reinforced bumper common on police cars but that clearly isn’t the official paint job, or even a standard paint option for the Dodge Charger. Even without taking into consideration the fancy custom paint, it’s clearly a new or nearly new vehicle. The Dodge website lists their various 2018 Charger models as selling for roughly $30,000 to nearly $70,000, depending on options.

Whether the car was purchased by the BSO, donated, or seized as part of an asset forfeiture action, the flashiness and obvious expense led many to question whether this was a good use of BSO resources. Parkland student Kyle Kashuv tweeted along these lines, saying the money would be better spent on training:

The tweet and photo are even more tone deaf as a reminder of one of the most heartbreaking reports on the day of the shooting: that multiple BSO deputies remained hunkered down behind their patrol cars in the parking lot during the shooting, instead of going into the school to confront the shooter.

Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker.

[Cross-posted at RedState.]