{"id":240685,"date":"2026-04-21T18:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240685\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T18:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:21:07","slug":"flpd-faces-claims-of-hostile-work-environment-for-black-and-hispanic-officers-amid-calls-for-independent-probe-wsvn-7news-miami-news-weather-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240685\/","title":{"rendered":"FLPD faces claims of hostile work environment for Black and Hispanic officers amid calls for independent probe &#8211; WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) &#8211; A group of Fort Lauderdale Police officers and a civil rights organization are demanding accountability about what they described as a hostile work environment in the department and its leadership\u2019s failure to address the situation.<\/p>\n<p>Leaders with the NAACP joined members of the department\u2019s Hispanic Police Officers Association and Black Police Officers Association at a news conference held Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is unacceptable that in 2026, Latinos and African American officers are still confronted with situations rooted on bias, discrimination and unequal treatment,\u201d said Jorge Felix Del Rosario with the Hispanic Police Officers Association.<\/p>\n<p>At the center of these officers\u2019 allegations is FLPD Officer Steven Poherence, who made headlines back in 2020 after he was seen on cellphone video <a href=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/local\/fort-lauderdale-police-officer-suspended-after-video-surfaces-showing-pushing-of-kneeling-protester\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">shoving a kneeling Black Lives Matter demonstrator<\/a> during a protest.<\/p>\n<p>Poherence was charged with a misdemeanor battery charge but was <a href=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/local\/broward\/former-fort-lauderdale-police-officer-who-shoved-blm-protester-found-not-guilty-of-misdemeanor-battery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">acquitted by a jury<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The officers who are claiming a hostile workplace at FLPD said that late last year, the 12 officers who scored the highest in a sergeant\u2019s test conducted by the department were Black and Hispanic, and they were subjected to allegations of cheating by Poherence.<\/p>\n<p>These officers believe the police department didn\u2019t do enough to shut down Poherence\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me be clear: Racism, hostility and any form of unjust discriminatory behavior will not be tolerated under any circumstances,\u201d said Del Rosario.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe environment was not one that they had hoped for, not one that they expected, and one that is very concerning,\u201d said Marsha Ellison, President of the NAACP\u2019s Fort Lauderdale\/Broward Branch.<\/p>\n<p>Those who took part in the news conference are asking for an independent investigation, preferably by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, into their claims.<\/p>\n<p>While no lawsuit has been filed, the officers making these claims said it is certainly an option. 7News has reached out to FLPD and the organizations who took part in Tuesday\u2019s news conference for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p>\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) &#8211; A group of Fort Lauderdale Police officers and a civil rights organization are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-240685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}