NAACP Alleges Racist Remarks by Officer
- Local NAACP and police associations accused a Fort Lauderdale officer of making racist remarks, announcing allegations publicly. - Groups include the Broward/Fort Lauderdale NAACP, and Fort Lauderdale Hispanic and Black Police Officers Associations. - The claims allege a hostile work environment and prompted calls for investigation (cbsnews.com).
Civil rights leaders and two Fort Lauderdale police affinity groups said this week that an officer’s remarks created a hostile workplace for Black and Hispanic officers. (cbsnews.com) The Broward/Fort Lauderdale branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Fort Lauderdale Hispanic Police Officers Association, and the Fort Lauderdale Black Police Officers Association announced the allegations at a Tuesday, April 21, news conference. They identified the officer at the center of the claims as Steven Poherence, also reported as Steve Pohorence. (wsvn.com) According to the groups and their attorney, 12 Black and Latino officers earned the top scores on a recent sergeant’s exam, and the officer who placed 13th accused them of cheating. Attorney Stephen Lopez said the accusations targeted colleagues who “simply scored better than him.” (nbcmiami.com) The groups said they want an independent investigation, preferably by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and they said a lawsuit remains possible. NAACP branch president Marsha Ellison said the officers did not expect to be treated as if they were “lesser than” by coworkers in their own department. (wsvn.com) The dispute is not only about one alleged comment. The officers and NAACP leaders said department leadership failed to stop the accusations quickly, turning a promotion exam into a broader complaint about bias, discipline, and trust inside the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. (nbcmiami.com) Poherence’s name has surfaced before in Fort Lauderdale policing. In 2020, he was seen on cellphone video shoving a kneeling Black Lives Matter demonstrator during a protest, and he was later charged with misdemeanor battery before a jury acquitted him. (wsvn.com) The department has faced another recent racism case as well. In July 2024, Fort Lauderdale fired Officer John Giga after an internal affairs investigation into what authorities described as aggressive and racist behavior during an off-duty Thanksgiving 2023 incident; his attorney said he was wrongfully terminated and was the victim of an attack. (local10.com) City officials said Tuesday that Fort Lauderdale is taking the new allegations seriously and reviewing them. For now, the public fight is over whether the city treats the complaint as a personnel dispute or as evidence of a deeper problem inside the ranks. (nbcmiami.com)
