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Interviewer: What is your capacity at Metro-Dade? Bencomo: I am Jesus Bencomo, Chief of the South Operations Division, which entails four district stations, the Doral Station which is located at the gist of the Headquarters building at 97th Avenue and 5th Street, the Kendall Station which is located at 77th Street and 17th Avenue, and the Hammock Station, which is located at 100 Street and 142nd Avenue, and the Cutler Ridge Station which is located at the Cutler Ridge Mall. Interviewer: So basically, what is the majority of your command? Bencomo: Three out of my four districts were directly impacted by the storm and put in the affected area. Interviewer: And your responsibilities were preparing the entire area as far as your officers to go to AB? Bencomo: Well, automatically the entire department goes to AB, because the resources of the entire department need to be activated. Keep in mind, that even though I was in the greatest impact zone, there were other parts of the county which were also affected. Interviewer: Did the department pull from the north? As soon as they found out that it was definitely gonna hit South Dade, did the department extract? Bencomo: No, no you do that at .... you realize that the resources that you have available.. because you don't know the level of damage. Communication playing the major part of this, secondly, structure and art, and based on that assessment you determine that, O.K. you need to pull from this, so you start pulling resources from other stations. Bencomo: One of the things that you have to understand about the aftermath of this, is that the officers have realized that a storm is an emergency situation. We do a lot of what we refer to as field form concept training which deals with civil disobedience, and that is the format that we have used, and we used in this particular case. Those kinds of format, those kinds of approaches were very effective near the hours of the storm. Can we improve on it? Sure. Can we critique what we have done? Of course, we always do that. Can we do it any better than what we did, based on the circumstances? I don't think I'd be the fairest person to judge that, obviously, since if I were to judge that I would say, "hell no." There are always ways to improve. If given the same set of facts, no phones, no electricity, no accessibility, based on that, I think it is difficult to determine. That the officers have learned from it, that the supervisors have learned from it, yes. I think that we all, in fact, that the entire community has learned from this one. When they say evacuate . . .it means evacuate, and everyone will. Interviewer: Do you think that the plan that was in effect was effective enough? Is there anything that you would have changed in the plans, as far as, if not departmentally, as far as your role in the community, as far as preparing? Bencomo: No, I think that the plan is a general plan, it is a very healthy plan. I don't think that anyone was prepared for the total devastation that we encountered. I don't think they were. I don't think we also even dreamed of that much damage. This was a dry storm. If we would have had a wet storm, how bad would it be? What kind of problems our vehicles would run in, to try to get through a flooded area? We do have, because of previous flooding, we do have some full wheel vehicles. Determining the target and where to be when the storm hits in Dade County, it will vary as to the degree of what it brings with it. Some things you just can't do anything about. You can't prepare for everything. You just can't stop things before they happen. We just try to do the very best we can. Interviewer: This is sort of outside the realm of things, but it came to me while we were discussing the staff running AB, having the six hundred officers running all the time, on twelve hour shifts. Is paying for that becoming a problem, now that it's happening? Now that its happened, its going to wind down next week. As far as generating the funds to cover the pay of the officers? Bencomo: Well, maybe you are not familiar with this, but once the government has declared this a disaster area, certain monetary funding levels come into effect. The principle ones for emergency operations, that is FEMA. They had decided that they would encounter, I think earlier in the stages of this, that I would be able to run this level of law enforcement in the South Dade area. We determined earlier in the stages of this, based on my projections, that's all we would need, that 90 days would be a reasonable amount of time to recover, and December 7th will be that. Interviewer: Do you see that the area that was hit by the storm, which is obviously your central area of command, do you see that there is marked improvements in the operation as far as, communication obviously the lines were off, and its been reestablished, but, as far as... Bencomo: Not totally though... Irregardless of what you hear. Today you might have a problem, and tomorrow at 248th Street there might not be one. Probably, the terminology marked improvements is very appropriate. I have seen substantial marked improvement. I think no other community could have recovered without the energies that we put into this seriously damaged South Dade area. It is still pretty bad, except when you compare what would the total devastation have been where we were and where we are now. Interviewer: How long have you been with Metro-Dade? Bencomo: April of 1993 I will have been five years. Interviewer: So you have been here for other storms? Bencomo: Yes. Well, we've never been as unlucky as to get hit by one directly like this one. This one just never deviated one degree north or south. When you get them like that, they have plenty of power. It could have gone right on up the State of Florida too, so we really don't know. But this one just stayed right on positive, right on water. Interviewer: Has the storm affected your daily life? Now that you have come off, you said that you have been working basically 16 to 18 hours up until two or three weeks ago. Bencomo: That is correct. Interviewer: So, now your house is basically in repair? Bencomo: Well, my house is still hurt. I tried to get the contractor, I finally got the contractor and then I had to hassle with the insurance, the same anxiety that everybody has to go through. I think that the level of dedication and sacrifice that our officers were willing to give is probably one that the citizens of Dade County will never know and it's unfortunate. Interviewer: What might be attributed to that is, it's hard for the press to show that, it's hard to, you can't see that. Bencomo: Well, it's a human story that they would have to take time to do and isolate. They take a backseat to probably some of the others. Maybe when things are all said and done, and everything is settled down, down the road they might decide, "Well maybe we ought to do a story on A or do a story on B," to see how the whole process ran. Interviewer: Did the National Guard stay long enough in your opinion, where they did their thing and the Army when they came in and all the troops, they came and they left at the appropriate time because things were... Bencomo: They worked very very closely with us. Probably the commanders will be complemented as a result of their cooperation with us, Major General Harrison. Interviewer: So, immediately after the storm hit, basically you came immediately. Once you saw the devastation in the area... Bencomo: I responded to the Emergency Operation Center which is located on Miller and 87th Avenue. That is where we operated from. All the heads of the departments and all the resources are clustered there. Interviewer: Is there anything that you would do now, that you could see that might facilitate better communication in the event that this was to happen again? Bencomo: We, as you know, we do have actual reports that address some of those issues and those type of decisions that we think did structural damage somewhat. I looked at the totality of the situation in the station and I think we need to address for example, if the building were within a flood zone, what would we do if we did have a lot of water? Well, when we look at the situation, all my telephone cables and stuff are on the first floor and my main generator is on the first floor, and I'm also looking at my electrical outlets that are properly interconnected with the second floor. I look at that as kind of foolish. Interviewer: You would isolate things and put them on the second floor? Bencomo: Well, I would like to move those kind of things that are portable. In other words, I could use the building after the flood water settles. You couldn't use the electrical because you've got water in those pipes, but after you isolate the first level and maybe with a switch or something, where you can have normal operations where you can have power going to both A and B, first floor and second floor. But, should your first floor go, you just switch and you only provide electrical outlets and electrical support for the upstairs. You move all your telephone wires and stuff to the second floor. In other words, make the building useful as quickly as possible even though, if you had to go back to a flooded area, and the water receded, you were able to operate and use the building for the purpose of housing, and not only housing, but staging your personnel. Interviewer: As far as the electricity problem in the areas that you were covering, which is basically the entire devastated area, under your command. Bencomo: That was a serious problem. Interviewer: There was no light at night ... Bencomo: None. Interviewer: And the patrol cars lights which are basically nominal. Bencomo: Well, we've got overhead lights. What we did was, in an effort to best assist the community and to keep them alert, we had the take down lights at all times and we had the red lights on at all times. Interviewer: The take down lights are the lights on the side? Bencomo: Yes, they are like a spot light that you could see the corners right at the sides of the vehicle. You keep those kinds of things on, and keep the red lights on, so the people will feel, because keep in mind, there are people still living there at night, and it looks like nothing you've ever seen before, it is really dark. I've never seen it that dark. Interviewer: All the citizens basically armed themselves, I mean that was what was portrayed in the media. Bencomo: There was a degree of that and there were some injuries and there were some incidents that occurred out there. Interviewer: Not as bad as you would basically ... Bencomo: It could have been worse. But, I don't think anything was as devastating or as outrageous. Some of our sister cities down in South Dade had the most problems because there types of housing suffered even more, which in this case triggers even more so, because a lot of people are just distraught and, of course, there are a lot of opportunists out there, bad guys, that want to go out and take whatever you've got. Interviewer: What positive outcomes did you see that the storm caused, as far as to you and your family, and to the department? As far as what you see in the way the department is operating after the storm, have you seen positive outcomes? Bencomo: In our personnel, or in the community? Interviewer: More your department? Bencomo: I think that one of the things, the result of that has been the level of dedication and sacrifice that the officers were willing to give for his fellow man, even though he was affected directly by the storm. As a learning device, I think what we found here was quick action, immediate saturation of the area. Interviewer: Is there anything else that you would like to respond to or say, that I haven't addressed? Bencomo: Well, one other thing that I think is important to know is, after every incident there always has to be a recovery period. We did, as an organization, have one, and as an individual, second, those things are being done. I think that we need to take a good hard look at what we are doing, what we would do different, what we can do better. On of the things that I think is worth mentioning is the sensitivity shown to our officers. We provided them with just about every conceivable, considering the circumstances, all kinds of benefits that we could establish, including getting them loans, we have a police assistance trust, we had a group of officers, they went around helping, literally went around and dried up people's homes, so that you wouldn't have to worry about it, so that when you are out there working those twelve hours, some people would show up at your house and put plywood in, and put plastic over your house, and make sure that it is dried, and later on move into a little bit more assistance. So, the department has really gone out of it's way to make sure that the officers directly affected are helped. That is positive to have, conscience of what the personnel who are giving 150% out there. I think we have managed to do that very well. Interviewer: And that hasn't let up, right? Bencomo: No, we still are doing it. Like I said, I think Thursday night is the last night that we are having a presentation that we are gonna do at the Cutler Ridge Station and I encourage you to go there and take a look. It will be a seven o'clock meeting, the directors are going to be giving out some certificates, and just an overall thanks, thanks for a job well done, because the sacrifice has been enormous. Interviewer: How long do you think it will take before that area recovers to where it was, as far as your command over the area and the relation of the community to you? Bencomo: We had developed a new plan, because policing, as I see it, will be a hell of a lot different down in the South Dade area for at least a year that I can tell. We have augmented and we requested personnel throughout the department, to augment the additional manpower in the South Dade area for at least a year. So I have assigned on or about 100 officers throughout the department to be assigned additionally to Station 4, the Cutler Ridge Station, for a minimum of a year, with instructions that police work as they have known in the past will be somewhat different. It will be more a humanistic approach to human nature, responding as quickly as possible to the calls for assistance, whether it be just for service or whatever happens. Interviewer: To show that security. Bencomo: To show, well, to be sensitive to the fact that these people are trying to rebuild there lives, their homes, everything, and our role has got to be that we are going to be there to protect them, and I hope that my program will.
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