Miami’s First Black Police Chief Retires From Troubled Force
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MIAMI — Police Chief Clarence Dickson announced his retirement Friday after 3 1/2 years at the helm of a 1,100-member department rocked by corruption and confronted by rising violence against its officers.
“This was entirely my own idea,” the department’s first black chief said at a news conference. “I felt like the highlights of my career I had already experienced.”
During his tenure, about 100 officers were convicted of crimes, forced to resign or disciplined for offenses ranging from participating in a deadly drug theft ring to personal drug use.
City officials announced that Dickson, 54, whose appointment was seen as a response to the bloody riots in Miami’s Liberty City section in 1980, would be replaced by Assistant Chief Perry C. Anderson, who also is black.
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