Miami Police Major Ian Moffett was appointed as the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department’s new chief at the Miami-Dade School Board meeting Wednesday.
Moffett, 42, who has served with the schools police and most recently with Miami Police, will be able to hire up to 25 more police officers for the department to maximize student safety, the school district said in a statement.
The board also signed off on a new contract with the police department’s union, The Miami Herald reported.
Moffett will be sworn in next week.
He began in law enforcement as a corrections officer in 1993, joining the schools police afterward. He departed as a captain in 2009 for Miami Police, according to the Herald.
“It’s surreal,” Moffett told the paper about his return. “I’m a cool, collected kind of person, so we’ll take things one step at a time, day by day, and make a strategic plan.”
His appointment comes just after the settlement of two sexual harassment lawsuits that two female officers filed against former police chief Charles Hurley. After the suits were filed in January the school district said that Hurley had been demoted, and he resigned in February.
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Major Gerald Kitchell, who became acting chief when Hurley was reassigned last May and was one of four finalists for the permanent position, will be the deputy chief, the Herald reported.
At its meeting Wednesday, the school board also approved Superintendent of Schools Alberto Carvalho’s reorganization plan for non-school sites. The plan – which includes a reduction in central office administrators, particularly in facilities construction – is expected to save $10 million, the district said.
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