Wayne Jones ‘couldn’t go to Miami Beach’ as a young Black man. Now he’ll be police chief

Deputy Chief Wayne Jones says that as a young Black man he “couldn’t go to Miami Beach” because of the racism in the city. On Wednesday, the Miami Beach City Commission confirmed Jones as the first Black police chief in the city’s 108-year history.

“When I became a Miami Beach police officer, my dad cried,” Jones said. “He cried because of the history of the way Black people were treated in this city.”

Jones, 54, will begin the role September 1.

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber acknowledged the city’s history of requiring Black workers to carry identification cards under a 1936 ordinance. The city was known as a “sundown town” where only white people were allowed to reside throughout the first half of the 20th century, and has long had a reputation for being hostile to Black visitors.

“This is a momentous moment, and I’m very comfortable that it’s the right person at the right time,” Gelber said. “We are in a city that, in my lifetime, required African-Americans to carry ID cards when they were in this city after sundown. And now we will have a police chief who is a person of color.”

City Manager Alina Hudak announced the appointment of Jones, a 27-year veteran of the Miami Beach Police Department, earlier this month.

Chief Richard Clements, who is retiring, is expected to stay on as an adviser until Oct. 31, Hudak said.

A city spokesperson did not immediately provide information about what Jones’ salary will be.

Wednesday’s commission vote was 7-0, despite an email from Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez to residents on Monday saying she would vote against the appointment due to the lack of a national search process.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Rosen Gonzalez said she hasn’t been “happy” with the performance of the police department’s command staff, but that she was “not going to begrudge” Jones a unanimous appointment.

Hudak said she decided to keep the search internal to the department, speaking with members of the command staff to determine who was interested in the chief role.

“I made a decision early on that I fully intended to keep the process internal,” Hudak said. “I believe that an external process is, quite frankly, as huge a risk as any city can take.”

Jones began his career with the department and rose from patrol officer to detective, sergeant, lieutenant, captain and major. In 2019, he was sworn in as deputy chief — the department’s second-in-command — on the same day Clements became chief. Jones previously had led the Criminal Investigations Division.

Clements has been with the Miami Beach Police Department for more than 30 years.

In May, the city’s Black Affairs Advisory Committee recommended Jones for the chief position, lauding his record dating to 1996 and his role in the creation of a “Goodwill Ambassador Program,” in which volunteers assist the police.

As a major, Jones also established the department’s human trafficking unit, Hudak said.

Jones’ appointment comes at a moment of intense focus on crime among Miami Beach residents, particularly in South Beach, even as the city’s crime rate has declined overall. Public safety has been cited as one of the top priorities for several candidates running for mayor in November, when Gelber will be term-limited.

The move also follows years of scrutiny and critique over the police department’s treatment of Black people in a city where just 4.7% of residents are Black, according to U.S. Census data. In 2021, five Miami Beach officers were arrested for using excessive force on a Black man in handcuffs and for pummeling a Black bystander who was recording the incident.

The city also faced criticism for enacting an ordinance that disproportionately targeted Black visitors who made video recordings of police. That law was enacted as part of a series of tough-on-crime measures following an unruly spring break in 2021.

Police and city leaders have continued to grapple with how to keep people safe and manage large crowds of young, mostly Black visitors in March after a pair of deadly shootings this year on Ocean Drive.