Tyreek Hill's violent traffic stop highlights larger police problems in Miami

The violent traffic stop of Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill by Miami-Dade police officers last week garnered national attention and resulted in one officer being placed on paid administrative leave. It also points to a larger problem involving police retaliation, arrests and intimidation in Miami-Dade County.

The Miami-Herald reported on Saturday that Danny Torres, the Miami-Dade official on leave, suspended six times for disciplinary violations in his 27-year career in the department.

Torres pulled Hill over for allegedly speeding in his McLaren 720S on the way to the Dolphins' season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars. A day later, Miami-Dade police released body camera footage of the traffic stop.

When Torres knocked on Hill's window, Hill rolled down his window partially, told Torres not to knock, and gave him his driver's license. “Just give me my ticket, bro, and I'll be good to go,” Hill said. “I'm going to be late. Do what you gotta do.”

Instead, Hill and Torres began arguing about whether Hill needed to keep his window rolled down during the traffic stop. When Torres ordered Hill to roll it down, Hill responded, “Don't tell me what to do.” Hill eventually complied and partially rolled the window down.

“Keep the window down or I'll get you out of the car,” Torres said shortly afterwards. “And actually, get out of the car.”

Hill repeatedly told officers he was going to get out, but they apparently felt he wasn't getting out fast enough, so Torres and two other Miami-Dade motorcycle police officers opened the door and dragged Hill out.

“When we tell you what to do, you do it, got it?” one of the officers yells in Hill's ear as he is pushed to the sidewalk. “Not when you want to, but when we tell you. You're a little confused.”

There is no law requiring drivers to keep their windows closed during traffic stops, but Florida courts give police officers a lot of leeway when it comes to ordering someone out of their car for safety reasons. However, the Fourth Amendment also protects against excessive and unreasonable force.

Hill wasn't the only Miami Dolphin to be handcuffed that day. His teammate, defensive lineman Calais Campbell, came to see what was wrong with his friend. Officers told him he wasn't allowed to park on the side of the road and told him to move.

“I told him I'll stand where you want me to stand. You tell me how far back I need to go and I'll go back, but I'm not leaving the scene,” Campbell said. told CNN“This is my friend. I'm here to support him. I'm not going away.”

Federal appeals courts have repeatedly ruled that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right to observe and record police in public, as long as doing so does not get in the way of officers.

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill Earlier this year, a law was passed that makes it a misdemeanor to come within 25 feet of a police officer after a verbal warning to stay away. This law does not take effect until 2025. Body camera footage shows that when another bystander began filming the scene, an officer yelled at him to go away, citing the outstanding law. When he didn't move fast enough, an officer got in the man's face to intimidate him. This is not only ignorance of the law, it is brutal.

Hill and Campbell were eventually released without charges.

“What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?” Hill asked in a press conference after the game last Sunday.

What typically happens in Miami is this: The defendant is charged with disorderly conduct or “resisting arrest without violence,” put in jail, and then must undergo a criminal trial lasting several months in the Miami-Dade County court system.

“I can't tell you how many wives, girlfriends, mothers, etc. I have represented who fought back nonviolently simply because they dared to ask why their partner was arrested or where they were being taken,” a Miami criminal defense attorney wrote me in an email earlier this year when I asked how common revenge arrests were.

I spent several months earlier this year researching what happens in such cases. In 2023, 317 misdemeanor cases were filed in Miami-Dade County where the only charge was “resisting arrest without violence” — sometimes, but not always, downgraded from more serious charges. Of the 230 cases that were closed when I reviewed them, 98 ended with the Miami-Dade District Attorney's Office filing a no preface– a formal notification that the proceedings are being terminated unconditionally.

The majority of the remaining cases (112) ended with the defendants agreeing to a pre-trial diversion program, often offered to first-time offenders, or with the proceedings being stayed pending payment of court costs and fines. Twenty defendants were convicted, and four were either acquitted or had the charges dismissed by the judge.

Cases of improper arrests occasionally make headlines in Miami. For example, last month a federal appeals court denied immunity to a police officer from a lawsuit alleging that the officer illegally arrested comedian Hannibal Burress and filed false charges against him for “disturbing the peace.” Burress had called the officer “dumb as the plague” and said the officer was “just mad for kicking his ass.”

An internal investigation completed Last year, a city police officer illegally handcuffed two men, arrested them for filming him, and told them to enjoy “the masculine and delicious smells” emanating from the back seat of his patrol car.

In 2022, a police officer held a North Miami man at gunpoint and arrested him for nonviolently resisting arrest after a verbal argument while walking his child to school. Miami-Dade prosecutors later dropped the charges after body camera footage showed the officer lied in his incident report when he said the man was belligerent and did not give his name.

Following the release of bodycam footage of Hill's traffic stop, the Miami Dolphins released a statement criticizing “the overly aggressive and violent behavior of police officers toward Tyreek Hill, Calais Campbell and Jonnu Smith.”

A South Florida Police Charity Association Press release A statement released shortly after the incident said Hill was “briefly detained for officer safety” after he became “uncooperative” and that he was not arrested at any point. The police union also said officers “sent Hill to the ground” after he refused to sit down. Imagine an NFL commentator saying a linebacker “sent” a wide receiver to the ground.

Hill was not a model of cooperation, but it is unrealistic and presumptuous to demand absolute subservience to police officers in every public interaction. And when officers quickly escalate minor situations, taunt arrested suspects, and flaunt their power over them, it exudes insecurity, not authority, which deserves immediate respect.