Chatting With Jim Devaney, Former North Miami Police Chief And Former City Councilman

Damn! Jim and I go back a long time. I was a kid, really still in my twenties, shooting for The North Dade Journal and Jim had yet to make chief. Then for the longest time he was the chief. Back then he was a bit too "old school" for my tastes. I was still going through my hippie period and there was no love lost between the "hippies" and the "pigs". We wanted to smoke a bit of herb and they had the law to enforce. But I was the news media and also the contract photographer for the City of North Miami. We had a truce. Don't ask, don't tell.

I was always getting assignments to photograph things like the new police station, police awards ceremonies, the police shooting at targets at the range. I even got to do some shooting at the range myself, the bullets out of guns type shooting. Me and the cops, we got along.

Then one day Jim retired. After a few years of boredom, I suppose, he ran for city council and had no trouble in getting elected. He was a good and effective councilman too, and it was useful to have the perspective of a cop sitting up there when it came to dealing with issues of crime, and public safety in general. These days Jim is really retired, but he pokes his nose in here and there. I think this occasion was at a swearing in for the new mayor and council.