Mary Pintea – News Editor

Mvp5879@psu.edu

The Miami Police Department revealed their Black History Month-inspired vehicle wraps on Feb. 2, highlighting their support for Black History Month. 

The wrap features pan-African colors, outlines of the African continent, raised fists, and a kente cloth—all significant to African culture. In addition to the wrap, Miami PD officers will also wear a Black History Month-inspired badge, both of which were unveiled at the Black Precinct Courthouse and Museum. 

City and police officials and former black officers attended the release ceremony. Mayor Francis Suarez stated that the event was slated to memorialize the integration efforts made by black officers during the segregation era. 

“Today we continue to take that a step further by doing this beautiful artistic rendering on our car and also the badge, which I think is incredibly important because we wear it on our chest. On our chest we will hold heavy that history, and we will display it proudly,” Suarez said. 

Miami Community Police Benevolent Association, an organization representing Black police officers, sponsored and paid for the wraps and badges. Local African American artist Anthony Lumpkin helped design the wrap. 

However, the wrap fueled online criticism from activists, who stated that it was tone-deaf and ignored the issues of the Black community—especially after the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police. 

The NAACP Miami-Dade Branch responded to the wrap’s debut: “What WE really need is more police accountability, police reform now and stop killing Black people!!!! A better use of funds would be to make a deeper investment in implicit bias training and other police training that would aid in saving our lives.” 

Rodney W. Jacobs Jr., the Executive Director of the City of Miami Investigative Panel—a citizen’s police oversight group—stated, “On the backdrop of it, when you have people asking for so much from police departments, especially Black and brown people, and you offer them, here’s a police car with a wrap on it, that it’s going to fall flat for most people.”

The online criticism was enough for the police department to hold a public news conference defending themselves. Sgt. Stanley Jean-Poix, the association’s President, noted that the department has used wraps on their police cruisers to honor other causes, including breast cancer awareness, autism, the military, and Hispanic Heritage Month. He informed the public that union members questioned why they had not created a wrap for Black History Month. 

Lt. Ramon Carr, the association’s Vice President, said the wrap’s inclusion was a source of pride for him and other officers.

“This was something for us to honor everyone. This had nothing to do with being disrespectful, being disgraceful. But this was something like a source of pride for us, and it still is for us,” he said.

“Sometimes the timing of things that come out may not always be right, so we understand that, but it wasn’t done disrespectful or untasteful to anyone,” he added. “We just wanted to celebrate African American history in our police department, something that we’re proud of.”