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Rodolfo “Rudy” Llanes has been chosen as the next chief of the Miami Police Department, according to the Miami Herald. Currently a deputy chief, Llanes, a department lifer, will take the helm following current chief Manuel Orosa’s scheduled retirement next month.
Llanes first joined the department as a public service aide in 1986, and became a full-fledged deputy in 1987. He then became a lieutenant in 2000, and spent a brief six months overseeing internal affairs in 2007. He reached the rank of major in 2007 under chief John Timoney, but was demoted back to lieutenant under chief Miguel Exposito.
At the time, Exposito said the demotions were nothing personal, and were meant to rearrange leadership positions that best fit his direction for the department. Of course, Exposito left his job under pressure and managed to get the department investigated by the Department of Justice during his tenure.
Llanes then became an assistant chief in 2011 under Orosa, and currently oversees Internal Affairs and special investigations divisions.
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More than 50 people applied for the job to become the new chief, and Llanes beat out three other finalists: Dallas Deputy Chief Malik Aziz, Miami Special Agent in Charge Hugo Barrera, and Deputy Miami Chief Luis Cabrera.
Llanes will become the Department’s third chief since 2010.
He inherits a department under federal supervision after the DOJ found a “pattern of excessive force” in more than 30 fatal police shootings, though his predecessor, Orosa, calmed some of the excesses that blossomed under Exposito’s watch.
But the department still faces plenty of questions from activists and community leaders, particularly after the recent death of a graffiti tagger run over by an officer in Wynwood during Art Basel.
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