RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — Riviera Beach Police Chief Michael Coleman has a new mission.
He’s planning to clean up the city he loves by starting a conversation.
It begins tonight at the city’s Marina Event Center. He’s kicking off the conversation with city leaders, law enforcement, business owners and residents with guest speaker and author Dwayne Bryant.
Chief Coleman told WPTV’s Shannon Cake, in an exclusive sit-down interview, that 20% of his job is dealing with criminals and 80% is dealing with quality of life issues.
“If I can address the portion of quality of life issues,” Coleman said, “it will impact the crime and criminals.”
The city has been battling a reputation of high crime, often topping the list of most violent cities in recent years.
Chief Coleman said his clean-up initiatives, like painting homes in blighted neighborhoods, have been working.
“Some the criminals I met early on in my career said, I want to be part of that initiative,” Coleman said. “They now want to help paint and clean up the community.”
Coleman’s conversation kicks off tonight at 6 p.m. City residents are encouraged to be part of the conversation.
