Scott Israel Biography
Scott Israel is an American law enforcement officer who served as the 16th Sheriff of Broward County, Florida until his suspension on January 11, 2019, by an executive order signed by new Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis appointed Gregory Tony to replace Israel.
Notably, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting occurred in his jurisdiction while he was Sheriff. He became best known to the United States public following the shooting for openly advocating in public forums and on national media, more stringent background checks, and condemning the perceived lack of adequate gun control measures in Florida, as well as in the United States.
Scott Israel Age
Scott Israel was born in 1957 in New York, United States. He is 63 years old as of 2019.
Scott Israel Net worth
Scott Israel earns his income from his businesses and from other related organizations. He also earns his income from his work as a law enforcement officer. He has an estimated net worth of $ 4 million dollars.
Scott Israel Family
Scott Israel was born to a Jewish family in New York United States and he was raised in The Bronx and Long Island in New York, United States. His father was known as Sonny Israel (father) but his mother’s name is under review. He has a brother known as Ira Israel.
Scott Israel Wife
Scott Israel is married to Susan Israel.
Scott Israel law enforcement officer
Scott Israel became a patrol officer for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department in 1979. In the 1980’s he was investigated for 10 incidents by Fort Lauderdale Police Department Internal Affairs division. The incidents included 6 accusations of “excessive or unnecessary force”, shooting at a drug suspect and for using profanity.
He was cleared of all wrongdoing. He later worked in narcotics and later served as a SWAT commander. From 2004 to 2008, he was the chief of police in North Bay Village. He left that position in 2008 to run for Sheriff but lost the election.
Scott Israel Broward County Sheriff
Israel was elected as sheriff in 2012, running against incumbent Al Lamberti and reelected in 2016. He is the first Jewish-American sheriff in Florida’s history. He is known for being outspoken regarding gun violence and gun control and opposes open carry legislation.
In 2016, Israel began to implement a plan for deputies to have body cameras. In 2017, his office was criticized for failing to take control in the aftermath of the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting. According to a report issued by the Sheriff’s Office, the failure was caused both by leadership issues and problems with communication systems.
On January 11, 2019, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially suspended Israel for his responses to the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting and Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting
In the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Israel came under scrutiny for both for the actions of his deputies and his department’s failure to act on warning signs about shooter Nikolas Cruz.
On the day of the shooting, an armed sheriff’s deputy was outside of the school but did not enter. Afterwards, 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, that 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.
According to Israel, his agency had “been involved in 23 type calls involving the killer in some way, shape or form — or his brother.” However, through a Freedom of Information Act request, CNN found that the sheriff’s department had actually received 45 such calls about Cruz or his brother over the past decade. Israel has rejected calls for his resignation, including one from State representative Bill Hager.
On November 12, 2018 at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission’s monthly meeting investigating the shooting, Sheriff Israel admitted that he had changed the Broward Sheriff’s Office written 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.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a commissioner on the panel, admonished Sheriff Israel stating that “Words matter, and according to your policy, he did not have to go in”. Judd was referring to Scot Peterson, the disgraced former Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as a school resource officer who resigned after it was revealed that he failed to enter the building to engage the shooter.
Peterson had waited outside the building with his gun drawn while shots were being fired inside. Sheriff Israel’s admission that he changed the verbiage of the active shooter policy clashed with his own statements at a news conference nine months earlier, just days after the shooting, when Sheriff Israel announced that Deputy Peterson was being suspended without pay because “He never went in.”
At the time of the shooting on February 14, 2018, Israel’s re-written active shooter policy in effect on the day of the shooting provided that Deputy Peterson did not have to go in, but that crucial information had not been brought to the public light until the commission meeting on November 15.
During the commission meeting as Sheriff Israel was being questioned, another Florida sheriff on the panel brought up that several of Israel’s deputies on the scene of the shooting failed to take command, and seemed disengaged, or failed to act at all, driving back and forth outside the school during the shooting, or they were distracted, which eventually led to more disciplinary action against these deputies.
Scott Israel Disgrace
Sheriff Israel has been criticized by his political opponents and accused of hiring his political supporters to work in “community outreach” jobs that consist mostly of going to meetings, touting the Sheriff’s Department’s success. Ten such workers were hired since 2013, for salaries totaling $634,479.
He responded to criticism of his team with “lions don’t care about the opinions of sheep,” while also stating he doesn’t spend more than ten seconds listening to his opponents’ criticisms.
On April 20, 2018, the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association opened a no-confidence vote for members, scheduled to conclude on April 26. This is the first no-confidence vote the union has brought against a sheriff. The no-confidence vote concluded 534–94 against Israel.
In May 2018, following the April vote of no-confidence, the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association paid for a billboard just north of Sunrise Boulevard on Interstate 95 appealing to Governor Rick Scott and referencing their vote with the phrase “There is no confidence in Sheriff Israel”. The association called for the governor to remove Israel following his handling of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Scott Israel Gov. DeSantis
Scott Israel told the Florida Senate on Friday that the reasons Gov. Ron DeSantis gave for suspending him as Broward sheriff are “patently false, grossly inflammatory, politically charged” and don’t establish grounds for removing him from office. In a filing with the Senate, Israel’s attorneys said the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre on Feb. 14, 2018, was “indeed a tragedy. But it was not a preventable tragedy given the intention of a mass murderer to commit acts of terrorism on the suburban high school campus.”
Israel’s arguments are contained in a response filed Friday with the Senate to the governor’s “Bill of Particulars” spelling out the reasons for the suspension. The language used by Israel’s attorneys was often strong, and it was often harshly critical of DeSantis. DeSantis suspended Israel in January, three days after becoming governor.
He cited “neglect of duty” and “incompetence” related to the Jan. 6, 2017, shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in which five people were killed, and the Parkland school massacre, in which 17 people were killed. In the “Bill of Particulars” DeSantis filed with the Senate in February, his deputy general counsel Nicholas Primrose wrote that the two shootings “highlighted years of failed leadership by Mr.
Israel, resulting in the [loss] of life, a failure to protect the peace and failure to protect the lives of residents and visitors of Broward County.” It listed 13 ways in which Israel “neglected his duty and/or was incompetent” and listed each of the 22 people killed in the two shootings and said Israel was “responsible for failing to protect the life” of each victim.
Under the Florida Constitution, the Senate will decide whether to uphold DeSantis’ suspension of Israel or return him to office. Dudley Goodlette, a former state representative, is serving as a special master, who will consider arguments in the case and report to the Senate. The response Israel filed Friday will be considered by Goodlette, and ultimately the full Senate. A final hearing on Israel’s suspension is set to start on June 18.
Israel’s attorneys made many of the arguments they’ve made before, including that the “suspension was a mere political ruse designed to satisfy partisan political promises made during the governor’s election campaign.” Israel’s lawyers, Benedict Kuehne, and Stuart Kaplan wrote that DeSantis decided as a candidate to go after Israel even before he “had any factual inkling of what had happened at the MSD shooting.”
DeSantis acted, Israel’s attorneys wrote, “solely to secure votes.” And they pointed out that Gov. Rick Scott, who was the state’s chief executive at the time of the airport shooting and the Parkland massacre, didn’t move to suspend Israel. “Neither Sheriff Israel nor the BSO was responsible for the mass shooting, nor was Sheriff Israel guilty of neglect of duty and incompetence in connection with that tragedy,” Kuehne and Kaplan wrote.
Among the arguments and denials in Israel’s filing: Active shooter training was provided to deputies. It isn’t Israel’s fault that Deputy Scot Peterson, the school resource officer on duty at Stoneman Douglas on the day of the shooting, didn’t enter the building to stop the shooter.
The widely criticized sheriff’s office policy stating that a deputy or deputies “may” enter the area during an active shooting — rather than an order that they shall do so was consistent with other police agencies. The use of “may,” providing an option, has been widely criticized after the shooting. Before he was suspended, Israel ordered a change to “shall” instead of “may.”
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