Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo's second-in-command, Deputy Chief Heather Morris, has been let go from her position.
Sources confirmed to NBC 6 that Morris received a letter Tuesday from City Manager Art Noriega saying her job had been defunded, and her services were no longer needed.
Morris — the first woman to serve as deputy police chief in the history of the department — served as Acevedo's internal affairs commander in Houston.
In Acevedo’s eight-page memo to city leaders in September, he said commissioners eliminated her position in an effort to “… meddle in the affairs of the (Miami Police Department)..."
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Commissioner Joe Carollo told NBC 6 by phone that commissioners made the decision to do away with Morris’s position unanimously to scale back funding from five assistant chiefs to four, which Carollo says was the norm.
“Instead of having a handful of positions at the 200,000+ level, to turn those into more police officers in the streets, patrolmen," Carollo said.
The chief has claimed Carollo and other commissioners have interfered with his reform efforts, interfered with a confidential internal investigation, and manipulated the budget out of spite.
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Acevedo also submitted his 24-page action plan for how his department will be moving forward after weeks of political drama. This document was requested and required by city manager Noriega.
Noriega saying in a statement in part, "… I continue to evaluate his plan and strategy and will have no further comment until I have had the opportunity to assess it in its entirety.”
