AMDG
EM
LOY
ACA
D
O
F cus LA
Y
ES
A Quarterly Newsletter for Alumni, Parents and Friends
T 19 0 9
w i n t e r 2 012 – 2 0 1 3
The Real Miami Vice
B
Law enforcement legend William J. Erfurth ’78 talks about the largerthan-life career that has taken him from the dark realities of Miami’s criminal underground to the bright lights of the Hollywood film industry.
Bill Erfurth during the filming of Bad Boys II
ill Erfurth has spent much of his life defending the thin blue line that separates the criminal element from the rest of us.
And nowhere is that line finer than in Miami — a rough and tumble city notorious for its thriving drug traffic, organized crime and other illicit endeavors. His 26-year career with the Miami-Dade Police Department has taken him from rookie cop to street detective to commander of the Miami-Dade Tactical Narcotics Team — the most successful narcotics squad in the city’s history and the unit featured in The Real Miami Vice, a television miniseries produced by The Discovery Channel and the BBC in 1998. He has led major narcotics stings, dismantled crime rings, ferreted out some of Miami’s most-wanted miscreants and received regional and national recognition for excellence in police work. The North Shore native’s crime story began 37 years ago, when the cop bug bit him — hard. He was just a skinny kid of 15 at the time, whiling away a few weeks of summer vacation at his grandparents’ home in Colorado. His aunt, who lived nearby, had recently married a cop — and she stopped by one day to introduce her new husband to Bill. Erfurth remembers the moment as if it were yesterday. “I was hanging out at my grandparents’ house and my new uncle walked in all spit polished and spiffy in his police uniform,” he recalls. “He was a former military guy in great shape — big and muscular — and he cut a very impressive figure. We chatted a bit and then he asked me if I wanted to ride along with him during his shift that day.” Erfurth jumped at the chance, not knowing that it would be the ride of his life as his uncle was dispatched to intercept a bank robbery in progress and a bar fight, with a car chase thrown in for good measure. “I thought, ‘Wow, you can get paid for this kind of entertainment?’” he says today with a chuckle. “People buy movie tickets to watch this stuff. That was my Aha! moment. Prior to going on that ride-along, I’d never considered being a cop. I rode along with my uncle a couple more times while I was on that vacation, and I was hooked.” After earning a degree in criminal justice at Southern Illinois University, the 20-year-old took an entry-level position with the Wheeling Police
1
2 1
William J. Erfurth ‘78 (above center), with his Tactical Narcotics Team, which was recognized as one of the most proactive police units in the country.
“The people in the projects called us the ‘jump-out boys’ because we’d race in and jump out of our cars to kick in doors and grab the drug dealers.” Department as a cadet and a dispatcher. During his oneand-a-half-year tenure with the department, he took a week of vacation time to accompany some college buddies on a spring break jaunt down to Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach. The group was eating lunch at a small deli across from a Miami marina when a police boat pulled up to the dock. Erfurth’s interest was immediately piqued. He struck up a conversation with the two officers, who told him that Fidel Castro had just emptied his prisons and insane asylums. The police department was hiring 2,000 new cops over the next two years to cope with the anticipated uptick in illegal activity as Cuba’s criminal element landed on Miami’s shores. “I remember listening to these guys and thinking, ‘This could be a great opportunity to get hired — and the opportunities for promotion would be better than those in Chicago,” says Erfurth. He decided to go for it. “I took the written exam during that spring break vacation. The department flew me back out to take a physical fitness test, a psychological screening that lasted
3
4
eight hours, a polygraph test, a health exam and an oral interview. After I passed those tests, they conducted an extensive background investigation. Eight months later, they offered me a job.” After a 22-week stint at the Miami Police Academy, Erfurth was assigned to the Metro-Dade (now MiamiDade) Police Department — a 5,000-man force that patrols a vast area that stretches from just south of Ft. Lauderdale down to Key Largo and from the ocean west across the Everglades to Naples. The next two years were an adrenalin rush of excitement and accomplishment for Erfurth. Although he modestly attributes his success to “being in the right place at the right time, a bit of luck and a talent for the cat-andmouse games” that apprehending criminals entails, the young officer clearly had an aptitude for police work. Soon he was making 20-25 arrests a month for what are known as the “major felonies” in police parlance: criminal offenses such as assault and battery, murder, rape, robbery, burglary and auto theft. His expert police work continued on page 2
5
Erfurth (center in photo) with director Michael Bay (left) and producer Jerry Bruckheimer during the filming of Bad Boys II in 2003. He played dual roles as an actor and technical advisor for the film. 2 With photojournalists Allison Lusby and Mike Kirsch at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony for The Jump-out Boys, a CBS news special featuring Erfurth and his Tactical Narcotics Team. 3 With his parents and actor Will Smith on the set of Bad Boys II. 4 With (l-r) director Joe Greco, actor and producer Joe Pantaliano and photojournalist Allison Lusby at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, accepting the festival’s Audience Choice Award for the motion picture Canvas. Erfurth was a producer for the film, as well as an actor. 5 With Academy Award-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden on the set of Canvas.