My proudest accomplishment as your Commissioner

Message from Commissioner Castillo D ear Friends: Having served as a Pembroke Pines City Commissioner since 2004, I'm sometimes asked what accomplishment I consider most important during that time. Was it road improvements, or improvements to parks, the Pembroke Road Overpass? Getting our city through the Recession? Sponsoring the civil citation program which diverts students from arrests for first time, non-violent offenses? Truth is, I'm proud of all of those but consider sponsoring our police body camera program the most important and I'll explain why.

We've seen horrible news reports in cities across America involving bad police encounters with the residents. I felt strongly that such an event never occur in our city. I felt that accountability and transparency was the right thing for Pembroke Pines PD and so 4 years ago, the City directed that all patrol officers be outfitted with body cameras. The program became an instant success, but not everyone in our city greeted the idea enthusiastically. I'm glad I did.

At the time I proposed the program, I explained that in years to come there would only be two kinds of police departments -- those like ours that chose voluntarily to outfit patrol officers with body cameras, and those forced to do so because of an unfortunate incident. I'm glad Pembroke Pines was proactive. Today, we are reaping the benefits of a good decision well made. Accountability and transparency is always the right thing to do.

Police body cameras go far to remove doubts about what takes place during police encounters. Indeed, the program has already been effective in resolving such concerns. Unanswered questions are in nobody's best interest. And this explains why our residents support the program so strongly.

For decades to come, this new law enforccement tool will serve to bring police and residents closer together. It will help them find ways to partner to make our city safer. It will help kids run towards police cars instead of away from them. And that's the kind of relationship we want to encourage.

Your thoughts about making Pembroke Pines a greater city are always important to me. Write me at acastillo@ppines.com and to you and yours a very Happy New Year.

Sincerely,

Angelo Castillo, Commissioner City of Pembroke Pines

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