Former Police Chief Raimundo Atesiano. YouTube

Police officers in a Miami suburb say they were told to pin unrelated crimes on black people to boost their crime stats.

Former Biscayne Park, Florida, Police Chief Raimundo Atesiano was determined to keep his department's stats "perfect."

Officers claim they were even instructed to "pin" crimes on innocent people in order to improve the crime statistics.

Atesiano and two of his former officers have been charged with abuse of power in a federal case.



It sounds like something from a movie about corrupt cops, but it allegedly happened to residents of Biscayne Park, Florida.

For several years, the police department in Biscayne Park boasted near-perfect crime-solving stats. But a probe claims to have found that not only were some of these crime reports falsified, but officers were allegedly instructed to "pin" crimes on black people.

According to the Miami Herald, during an internal review interview, Officer Anthony De La Torre explained how he says his superiors instructed the police to behave: "If they have burglaries that are open cases that are not solved yet, if you see anybody black walking through our streets and they have somewhat of a record, arrest them so we can pin them for all the burglary."

Former Police Chief Raimundo Atesiano is alleged to have been central to pushing this completely illegal and unethical approach to "crime-solving." Atesiano, some of the officer's claim, wanted his department's much-touted stats to be maintained by any means necessary.

Other officers interviewed allege that Atesiano and other authorities flat-out told them to frame people for crimes they did not commit so that it would appear the police were successful in catching the perpetrators.

"I will not arrest an innocent person in order to make the department look good," Officer Omar Martinez said, claiming that he refused to put the practice into action.

Atesiano resigned in 2014 and denied telling his officers to specifically target people of color. According to The Miami Herald, the year after Atesiano left, the department failed to solve any of the 19 burglary cases that year — a far cry from the falsely attained 29 out of 30 solved cases under Atesiano during a two-year period in 2013 and 2014. Nearly all of those 29 accused were black men, according to the Miami Herald.

Atesiano is now under federal indictment for a case involving a 16-year-old Haitian-American, who prosecutors say was falsely accused of multiple burglaries and other crimes but never formally charged.

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