Fort Lauderdale's police chief has been fired after only about six months on the job following an investigation into complaints that he made hiring and promotion decisions with an improper minority-first approach.
A city of Fort Lauderdale news release said the chief, Larry Scirotto, 48, was fired by City Manager Chris Lagerbloom on Thursday.
Scirotto, a former assistant chief in Pittsburgh, was the first openly gay chief hired in Fort Lauderdale and also is from a mixed-race background. He came in as the department was dealing with backlash from incidents during protests after George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis.
"I want a great relationship with people in our community who haven’t had access in the past," Scirotto said at the time.
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But in the fall, things turned sour when Scirotto promoted a list of minority employees. Four officers — three white and one Hispanic — filed EEOC complaints alleging that the chief was promoting unfairly.
“Many believed that Chief Scirotto made clear his intention to promote, based on race, gender, or sexual orientation," Lagerbloom said.
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The investigation into the bias complaints noted that Scirotto once said a conference room wall of photos was "too white” and said, “I’m gonna change that.”
Another time, when considering a promotion, the investigation found that Scirotto said “which one is blacker?” The report quoted Scirotto as saying he intended to "consider diversity at every opportunity.”
“There’s everything we have to do in the proper way. Again, I go back to the fact that we support a very diverse organization," Lagerbloom said. "We serve a very diverse community and that’s important. There are just certain ways that you can do that and do it legally, and other ways that meet that muster.”
Scirotto’s supporters expressed disappointment, saying the chief was heading towards positive changes for the department.
Attorney Christina Currie used to head the Ft. Lauderdale Citizens Investigative Panel which looked into complaints against officers. Currie Friday afternoon said,
“I was really looking forward to the leadership that Chief Scirotto was going to bring." said attorney Christina Currie, who used to head the Fort Lauderdale Citizens Investigative Panel. "I think our community was really excited changing the culture of what we had experienced here in our police department.”
“The new chief came to town. He started making positive changes that would impact the whole community in a more positive direction than we had been in," community activist Jackie Scott said.
“The tactics used by a few officers to discredit the promotions of Black and minority officers with masters degrees, stellar reputations, and exemplary work history, are nothing short of appalling," Cecil Stone, the head of the Fort Lauderdale Black Police Association, previously wrote.
The attorney for the four officers who filed the EEOC complaints said in a statement that she hopes the "city continues on this path making improvements within the agency.”
"We are pleased to see that the city of Fort Lauderdale is taking allegations of discriminatory practices within the department seriously," Tonja Haddad Coleman said.
Scirotto did not return NBC 6's requests for comment.
The acting police chief will be Luis Alvarez, who is currently an assistant chief. The department has about 530 officers and 179 civilian employees.
