The Independent Civilian Panel’s new executive director has officially touched down in Miami-Dade County, and already she’s being told to go back to where she came from.
Ursula Price received a warm welcome from her peers at the ICP’s most recent meeting – Price’s first – on Feb. 7, but activist Rafael Antonio Gomez had other plans.
“Miami, Florida,” Gomez said when asked to state his name and address for the record, “not where the chair person-whatever is from that came from New Orleans, who has no idea how we operate here in Miami-Dade County … She comes from New Orleans where cops are pretty gangster and pretty ghetto, so I don’t know what she’s going to help us with, and she has purple hair.”
(Samantha Morell for The Biscayne Times)
Ursula Price addresses the Independent Civilian Panel at a meeting Feb. 7.
Tensions were high before the meeting even began, as Gomez circled the conference room while recording the goings-on with his phone from a handheld tripod as he usually does, tossing out labels like “Mafia-Dade County” and branding some of the panel’s members as “corrupt” or “crooked.”
He addressed qualms with members already long established within the panel, including Clemente Vera, who Gomez says gave him the middle finger in December; Joshua Jones, whose enforcement of the two-minute time limit for public comments came off as disrespectful to Gomez; and Oscar Braynon, who told Gomez to “go f---" himself as the two walked into the meeting following a confrontation in the hallway.
Gomez, a self-proclaimed journalist whose cop-watching channel on YouTube has garnered more than 36,000 subscribers, is somewhat infamous among county politicians. He is often present at county commission meetings, which he views as a waste of time and money and where he calls on commissioners to resign or vote “no” on just about any item that comes before them.
Beneath his frustration and relentless reproach is a complete loss of faith in county government.
(Samantha Morell for The Biscayne Times)
Rafael Antonio Gomez, a resident watchdog, holds a video camera up to the Independent Civilian Panel meeting Feb. 7.
“This body is inept,” Gomez said to the ICP last Tuesday. “In two years it hasn’t heard one complaint. Most of the people have not passed training … Most of the time you don’t have a quorum. You guys show up late, you start late. You have no respect for the public. You guys have no idea how to resolve the issues with the Miami-Dade Police Department.”
But not all of that is entirely true, specifically, his overuse of the word “most.” What is true, though, is that the ICP has taken two years just to lay down a foundation.
Part of the delay has to do with the impending election to choose a county sheriff next year, which scared off the ICP’s first choice for executive director, Nicole Barton. The county responded in June 2022 by voting to reserve jurisdiction over the county’s police force as a municipal body, which then triggered a lawsuit from the Florida Sheriffs Association.
That dispute, however, was put on hold last week when Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Vivianne Del Rio ruled that any legal challenge will have to be brought by the sheriff themself once elected, if they so choose. In the meantime, the sheriffs association has threatened to meet that decision with an appeal.
(Samantha Morell for The Biscayne Times)
In light of two years of what he believes is slow progress, Rafael Antonio Gomez told the Independent Civilian Panel he wasn’t optimistic about its ability to get any work done.
According to Price, however, the panel has by no means been standing still. In fact, she applauded her peers for already having an outreach list and a training plan that most of its members actually have completed.
“As frustrating as it is for the community to expect something from an institution and not see palpable results yet, I want to assure folks that things have been moving … and these things are not insignificant, because you can’t build a house without a foundation,” she said.
“These things will determine all outcomes that we produce,” she later added.
As for her hair, well, Price thinks it’s cute, and it hasn’t stopped her from giving serious consideration as to how the panel should function.
Price arrived at her first meeting with a robust list of propositions and requests, including a search for academic partners to produce both qualitative and quantitative data that will serve as a baseline to measure the panel’s progress. She says she has prepared a research request memo to facilitate that search, but in the meantime has plans to launch a countywide survey in the next month to assess areas of risk and concern.
She often draws on the oversight experience she honed while in New Orleans, referencing the moment she learned residents in her hometown were concerned with how police officers treat children after school, or when mothers who had lost their children to police violence changed the way officers interact with grieving parents. At the same time, she recognizes each locality has its own unique set of worries.
“As [Gomez] said, I am new to Miami,” Price said. “I can only guess what people are experiencing that might overlap with other parts of the country, but to be accurate, we need to listen to the people here.”
The ICP is currently working to hold a meet-and-greet reception in conjunction with Liberty City’s Circle of Brotherhood during the second week of April. That event should be followed by frequent listening sessions throughout the county.
The panel has also established its own office on the 19th floor of the Miami-Dade County Courthouse, located at 73 W Flagler St. It can additionally be reached by phone at 305.349.7525.
“We can be a conduit to you getting your concerns to the police department and getting some actual action taken,” Price said to Gomez. “That is something that oversight can make happen, if this community uses it.”