Destroyed evidence. Guns missing from the Property Room. Favors done for politicians and Salsa singers, along with paying cut rate prices for tickets from a ticket scalper and driving him around town to boot, are just the latest in a long line of incidents and abuses committed by the top brass of the Miami Police Department that I've uncovered written about during the last 6 years.

Mind you, those are just the most recent incidents, because over the years I've written so many bad stories about the goings on inside the Miami Police Department that I've probably collected enough stories to write a TV series that would make Miami Vice or Bad Boys look like nursery rhymes.

The problem that occurs in any organization, especially a quasi-military organization like a police department when it becomes rife with the kind of corruption and mismanagement that Miami is experiencing is that over time the corruption and failure begins to affect the rank and file who figure that if the bosses can get away with misbehavior then why can't they.

An example of this problem and how it corrupts the behavior of officers who feel that they to can ignore the law is in the latest Official Bulletin that is periodically sent out to the department as an internal newsletter of sorts. I've highlighted the relevant part.

What would happen if you or I did the same thing?  Here's what Florida law says about that.

The practice of covering up a license tag with a dark piece of plastic has become so prevalent, that not only is it done by officers in unmarked cars, but the Miami Police Department actually sent out a tweet of a marked car with it's tage blackened out on it's official Twitter account.

As part of the union contract, all police officers are assigned a car - marked or unmarked - which which they are responsible for.  All of these cars are  considered "Take Home" cars.

There are actually several valid reasons for cops being able to take their cars home starting with the fact that they tend to take better care of them, which in turn cuts down on maintenance problems  The downside is that since so many cops live out side the city limits, including cops who live in Broward and Palm Beach County, those cops often take the Turnpike and other toll roads to go to and from home.

Over time, those tolls can add up. That's where the problem lies.

Additionally, some cops who are assigned unmarked cars, have taken to covering up portions of their license tags to evade having to pay tolls, as evidenced by the photo at the top of this story, and the photos below.

Every day, the odds are that all of the top brass, starting with the Chief, will see one of these vehicles with their tags blackened out, and none of them will so much as even give it a thought, because when a police department becomes corrupt, the corruption imposes it's own sense of values, and turning a blind eye becomes a value that overwhelems integrity and honesty.

It's part of what makes Miami, Miami, Bitches!