BOCA RATON, Fla. (CBS12) —
Rep. Bill Hager (Boca Raton), the chairman of the Florida House of Justice Appropriations, has called on Gov. Rick Scott to remove Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel - a power the governor has under Florida law - from his post for neglect of duty and incompetence in regards to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
In his letter to the governor on Saturday, Hager said that various media outlets reported that the School Resource Officer, Scot Peterson, and three deputies under Sheriff Israel's command "were on campus at the time of the attack and chose to take cover themselves rather than stepping up to protect our students."
Rep. Hager also mentioned the number of times police were called to Nikolas Cruz's home.
"The Sheriff was fully aware of the threat this individual presented to the community and chose to ignore it," Rep. Hager said.
He continued to remind the governor that this wasn't the first time a review of the Broward Sheriff's Office has been conducted. He said that, according to reporting conducted by a local journalist, a report after the Fort Lauderdale Airport shooting in 2017 found that the sheriff's office failed to set up a unified command structure, among other faults during the emergency.
Hager's legislative aid said that due to this, the representative proposes "that certain dollars currently scheduled for appropriation for the Broward Sheriff's Office be redirected...to initiate a pilot program in Broward County that will integrate and analyze data from various law enforcement, courts, state agencies, and school districts to better assess risk and keep our citizens safe."
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