Former Broward sheriff Scott Israel resigns as Opa-locka police chief after a year

Opa-locka Police Chief Scott Israel officially announced his resignation on Friday, just a year after he took the post.

Israel — who was Broward County sheriff during the 2018 mass shooting at a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and was ousted from the job by Gov. Ron DeSantis over criticism about the law enforcement response — said during a press conference that he decided to leave the department on his own terms and wants to spend time with his family.

“I thank you for the opportunity to have served in this role,” Israel wrote in a May 25 resignation letter. “It has been my absolute honor to serve the citizens of the City of Opa-locka. I am proud of the accomplishments and improvements the police department has made during my tenure. I have made this difficult decision in the best interest of my family.”

Israel’s last day will be July 1. Opa-locka police captain Kenneth D. Ottley will become interim police chief while the city conducts a national search for Israel’s replacement. A former Marine, Ottley worked for the Miami-Dade Police Department for 32 years before retiring. He joined the Opa-locka Police Department in July 2022.

At Friday’s presser, Israel called the decision bittersweet and thanked his family and the city for supporting him. “We’ve taken this police department in the right direction,” he said. “We treat people with dignity and respect. We don’t racial profile, we ride around with our windows down, listening to what the community has to say. We’re disciplined, we follow rules and regulations.”

Opa-locka interim City Manager Darvin Williams said under Israel’s leadership the city’s crime rate decreased 30% in the past 12 months and their crime is the lowest it has been in a decade.

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“One of the things that Chief Israel and I connected on was community policing,” Williams said. It was important that a city that’s predominantly African American and Latino have a chief of police that understood the importance of having the community connect with our police. And that has been proven with great results.”

Opa-locka, a city with a history of turnover and turmoil in its police department, hired Israel as its police chief in May 2022.

Opa-locka’s police department — not unlike the city’s government as a whole — has experienced scandal among rank-and-file officers and mismanagement in the hierarchy for years. The central Miami-Dade city has been under state oversight since a 2016 FBI investigation into public corruption. More than a half-dozen people were convicted in the probe, including a city commissioner, two top administrators and a lobbyist.

Prior to joining the police department, Israel had a long tenure in Fort Lauderdale and a short stint in North Bay Village before before becoming Broward County Sheriff. Israel was sheriff during the Feb. 14, 2018 mass shooting in Parkland.

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In 2019, DeSantis removed him from office after a state-appointed panel found that Israel’s lack of leadership likely contributed to deputies not confronting shooter Nikolas Cruz during shooting, which in which 17 students and staff died and another 17 were injured.

Israel said his resignation had nothing to do with the trial of former Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson, who is being tried in federal court on allegations he failed to confront Cruz during the shooting. Peterson faces seven counts of felony child neglect, according to the Associated Press.

While Israel said he is not looking for new opportunities, he is open to any that come his way. “People make plans, but God’s in charge,” he said.

Miami Herald staff writers Grethel Aguila and Jay Weaver contributed to this report.