After less than a year on the job, Fort Lauderdale's top cop is being fired after an investigation into employee complaints, the city manager said Thursday.
In a brief statement, City Manager Chris Lagerbloom said it's "in the city's best interest to separate employment with" Police Chief Larry Scirotto.
Lagerbloom didn't give any details on the employee complaints.
It was announced in November that the city had hired an outside investigator to look into allegations of racial, gender and sexual-orientation discrimination in its police department.
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Former prosecutor Gregg Rossman was hired to look into complaints by four officers that the police department discriminates when it comes to internal promotions.
Assistant Chief Luis Alvarez will serve as acting chief, as the city searches for its next chief, Lagerbloom said. Alvarez joined the FLPD in 1997 and has spent time in the narcotics unit and was a Special Operations Division commander before being named assistant chief of the Investigations Bureau.
Scirotto was sworn-in as Fort Lauderdale's chief in August 2021, following a two-decade career in Pittsburgh where he rose to be the assistant chief.
He was selected after a nationwide search after the department came under criticism when video showed an officer pushing a woman who was kneeling during a protest after the death of George Floyd.
