Photo: Fort Lauderdale Police Department
A gay police chief in Florida has been fired after only six months on the job after he was accused of favoring minority officers in hiring and promotion decisions.
On March 3, Fort Lauderdale City Manager Chris Lagerbloom fired former Police Chief Larry Scirotto, 48, following an investigation into complaints that Scirotto had unfairly promoted some officers based on their characteristics rather than merit.
Scirotto, a former assistant chief in Pittsburgh, is of mixed-race background and was the first openly gay chief hired to lead the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. He was brought in at a time when the department was dealing with backlash stemming from several incidents that occurred during protests reacting to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2020.
Among those incidents included the deployment of tear gas against protesters, the shoving of a kneeling protester, the shooting of a woman with a rubber bullet, and controversies stemming from the use of facial recognition technology to identify protestors — which critics have said has difficulty making accurate identifications of people of color.
At the time, Scirotto said he wanted to ensure the department fostered better relations with people in the community who have historically had fraught relations with police, a goal many felt was a positive step.
But in the fall, Scirotto promoted a list of minority employees, which led three white officers and one Hispanic officer to file complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that he was promoting people in a biased manner. Read more.
