Scott Israel

 ( 1950s Births ) 

In May 2015, Israel said that he was concerned with the nationwide increase in shootings of unarmed men, and that he had told his deputies that if any of them shot an unarmed suspect, they would have to answer to him.

That same year, Israel began to implement a plan for all 1,500 uniformed deputies to wear body cameras, a program which was fully implemented by the end of 2016. During Israel's tenure as Sheriff, burglaries dropped 42% in BSO-patrolled areas (from 5,556 to 3,210), and violent crime dropped nearly 20% (from 23,983 incidents to 19,564). He also increased diversity among BSO personnel, increasing the percentage of Asian, Hispanic, and African-American deputies; and stressed the concept of community policing. Israel also expanded the use of juvenile (instead of criminal arrests), making their issuance mandatory to all eligible youth, in order to help keep juveniles out of the criminal justice system and give them second chances.

He is known for being outspoken regarding gun violence and gun control, and opposed open carry legislation. During his first term, Israel built a record of being the most progressive sheriff in Florida with his approach to body cameras and civil citations for juveniles.

At the same time, Israel was a target of conservatives across the nation and the National Rifle Association (NRA), in part due to his vocal criticism of the NRA and what he considered lax gun laws. During a CNN town hall in February 2018, he told an NRA spokeswoman that the NRA was obstructing the police’s ability to keep people safe.

A Broward County Sheriff's Office deputy in the terminal immediately responded by running to the sound of gunfire, apprehending the suspect within 85 seconds after it began. The following year, he was named Deputy of the Year by the Florida Sheriffs Association. The deputy had been trained to react immediately to an active shooter, and said: "I was basically going, reacting, what I was trained to do. So I went towards the shooting." The other responding BSO officers also reacted in a manner that the Special Master who was appointed to review the law enforcement response, former Florida Senate President J. Dudley Goodlette, later said was "textbook." The Special Master found that the shooting "was not preventable by Sheriff Israel or anyone else".

The BSO's after-action report did not find any negligence on the part of Israel. It did, however, criticize the agency for failing to take control due to leadership issues from the incident commander (a colonel) on the scene, and problems with Broward County's failing radio communications system which was controlled by the county rather than the sheriff's office, which was one of its many users. "Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto," Israel v. DeSantis, Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit of Florida, March 7, 2019.

The Senate's Special Master J. Dudley Goodlette, who examined all the evidence of the incident in a two-day evidentiary hearing, said no evidence supported the notion that the shooting and later chaos could have been avoided with better BSO training and preparation.

After the shooting, Israel called for a ban on to be reinstated, and said that he didn't believe that people with mental illness should have access to firearms. He said: "All I'm going to do is speak my mind. If I'm on an island, I'm on an island. I'm not going to worry about who is with me or who is not."

During the shooting, a 32-year veteran armed sheriff's deputy (Scot Peterson) arrived at the school within two minutes of the start of the shooting, but did not enter the building or peer in its windows, and instead retreated to another building and hid for 48 minutes, while telling other deputies to stay at least from the building. Afterward Israel criticized the deputy, saying that he should have "went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer". It was later discovered that there may have been at least two other deputies, who arrived later, who also did not enter the building. Coral Springs police officers who arrived at the scene were surprised to find that the deputies still had not entered the building. A Florida sheriff on the panel said that several of the Broward deputies on the scene failed to take command, and seemed disengaged or were distracted or failed to act at all, driving back and forth outside the school during the shooting. This led to disciplinary action against additional deputies. As to Israel, the Special Master tasked with reviewing his suspension, who recommended that the suspension was inappropriate, found "Sheriff Israel does not (and cannot) supervise each deputy." The Special Master noted that the BSO had 5,600 budgeted positions.

Israel said his agency had received 23 calls involving the killer in some way, shape, or form over the prior several years, as well as calls relating to his brother. With regard to some of the calls, handled both in person and by phone, deputies met with Cruz’s mother. The Broward Sheriff Office stated on February 24, 2018: "Since 2008, BSO responded to 23 incidents where previous contact was made with the killer or his family." Tweet , Broward Sheriff, February 24, 2018. Through a public records request, CNN found that the sheriff's department had received 19 calls relating to Cruz himself (some when Cruz was as young as nine years old; they ranged from a call to the police reporting that Cruz was cursing, to a call saying he had shot a chicken with a BB gun). A total of 45 calls related to the Cruz home, Cruz or his brother (his brother was the subject of the majority of the calls), over the prior decade. The majority of the calls resulted in no written report.

A Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resource deputy had an investigator for the Florida Department of Children and Families speak to Cruz in 2016, but Cruz's therapist said that he was “not currently a threat to himself or others” and did not need to be a mental health counselor said Cruz did not meet the criteria under Florida law that allows the police to commit a mentally ill person against their will. Stoneman Douglas High School conducted a “threat assessment” on Cruz after the counselor’s report, and the Florida Department of Children and Families ultimately concluded that Cruz was not a threat given that he was living with his mother, attending school, and seeing a counselor. The FBI, for its part, admitted that it had received a tip (saying the caller suspected Cruz would shoot up a school) that its protocols required it to further investigate, but that it had failed to do so.John Ligato (2019). The Comey Gang; An Insider’s Look at an FBI in Crisis

Sheriff Israel rejected calls for his resignation, including one from Republican state representative Bill Hager, as to which Israel said "It was a shameful, politically motivated letter that had no facts." Speaking to reporters after the shooting, Israel said: "I've said this time and time again. While the people who are victims of mental health illnesses in this country are being treated, in the opinion of this sheriff, they should not be able to buy, surround themselves with, purchase, or carry a handgun. Those two things don't mix." Israel called on federal and state lawmakers to allow police officers to detain people for a mental health evaluation who had made worrisome social media posts or “graphic threats” such as wanting to be a serial killer. He also said: " should be outlawed forever."

On November 12, 2018, at the high school's Public Safety Commission's monthly meeting investigating the shooting, Israel admitted that he had changed the sheriff's policy on active shooters, changing one word in a critical sentence about deputies engaging active shooters from "shall" go in after the shooter, to "may" go in after the shooter. The change brought the policy in line with most similar policies at other Florida law enforcement agencies, while other policies even required that the deputy not go in after the shooter but rather wait for backup. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a commissioner on the panel, admonished Israel, saying "Words matter, and according to your policy, he did not have to go in". Judd was referring to Scot Peterson, the former BSO deputy assigned to the high school as a school resource officer, who resigned after it was revealed that he had not entered the building to engage the shooter, but rather had waited outside the building with his gun drawn while shots were being fired inside. A Marjory Stoneman Douglas Commission found that Peterson "knew through his training that the appropriate response was to seek out the active shooter, and not containment." Israel's statement that he had changed the verbiage of the active shooter policy was at odds with his statements at a news conference nine months earlier, days after the shooting, when he announced that Peterson was being suspended without pay because "He never went in."

A 2019 "Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission Report" did not find any neglect of duty or incompetence on the part of Israel, but did discuss Peterson's failure to confront the shooter, and find that equipment and training necessary for effective response to mass casualty events was sporadic and inconsistent.Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission (January 2, 2019). "Initial Report Submitted to the Governor, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Senate President." The Special Master review concluded: "it was the individual failures that plagued the Stoneman Douglas response, not neglect or incompetence by Sheriff Israel.