MIRAMAR, Fla. – Delrish Moss, who was a longtime public spokesperson for the Miami Police Department and became the first Black police chief for the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department during civil unrest following the fatal police involved shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, is now the top cop in Miramar.

Moss, 58, was recently appointed the new police chief for the Miramar Police Department.

Moss, previously a captain for Florida International University Police Department, was sworn in on April 13.

In an exclusive interview with the South Florida Times, Moss said he was among dozens of candidates who applied for the job.

Moss said he lives outside the city’s limits and knows a lot of people in Miramar since he spends much of his time "here." "I go to the gym here, I shop here and get my haircut here," he said. "I do all of my business in Miramar. It’s like I’m home."

Moss will oversee 220 sworn police officers and a support staff of 84 to serve a population of 138,000 living on the Broward County and Miami-Dade County line.

Moss said he plans to focus on leveraging technologies to fight crime, increasing staffing in anticipation of future growth in Miramar and strengthening relationships with residents, better "serving our community."

Moss said a challenge he’s facing and other police departments across the country, is attracting and recruiting officers and retaining their services in the long run.

Moss said when he started his law enforcement career in 1984, Miami-Dade and Broward counties had about a total of 55 police departments but there is now a larger need for officers with the population growth over the years.

"The goal is to become competitive from a recruitment perspective," he said. "Hire and keep quality police officers who are going to do the job well and not cause any embarrassment and problems."

Born in Miami, Moss joined the police force for the City of Miami, climbing the ranks to major and becoming the first Black police chief in Ferguson in 2016 to help ease the tension between the com-

munity and police department following Brown’s death at the hands of police officer Darren Wilson, who’s White.

The shooting sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.

Moss replaced Tom Jackson who resigned after a U.S. Justice Department cited racial bias in Ferguson criminal justice system.

Moss, who beat out dozens of candidates for the job, was heralded for its efforts for reforming the criminal justice system, some of which were mandated by the U.S. Department of Justice, before he resigned in 2018 and returned to Miami to care for his ailing mother.

Moss said Ferguson was an interesting experience because the police department didn’t reflect the predominantly Black population it was serving and lacked understanding from a community standpoint.

He diversified the police department by recruiting more Black police officers to join his department.

"The department went from four Black officers to 50 percent Blacks and grew from three women to more females in the police department ," he said. "It was a process of growing but Ferguson really had not seen a Black man in that position. We proactively worked to recruit police officers and the fact is the new face of the department helped a great deal in that process"

A graduate of Miami High School in 1982, Moss grew up in Overtown, where he was once frisked by a Miami police officer for no apparent reason.

The experience prompted Moss to become a police officer to teach his fellow officers to treat people fair.

He patrolled the streets of Miami’s historically Black communities including Overtoown, Liberty City, Allapattah and Coconut Grove.

Moss was promoted to homicide detective in 1989 and in 1995, then-Police Chief Donald Warsaw convinced Moss to become a spokesman for the city.

Moss was the police spokesperson when federal agents took Elian Gonzalez from his uncle’s Little Havana home in 2000.

Gonzalez was found on a raft by two fishermen after Thanksgiving in 1999 when his relatives perished in the waters trying to reach U.S. soil after fleeing the communist regime in Cuba.

Gonzalez’s father wanted his son returned to him in Cuba and the boys’ relatives defied an order from thenUnited States Attorney General Janet Reno to turn him over to federal agents before the raid.

Moss was later promoted to major by former police chief Manuel Orosa who credited Moss for contributing to the improved relationship between Miami’s African-American communities and the police department.

Moss was active in community outreach, moving important relationships from tense to productive.

When Moss returned to South Florida from Ferguson to care for his mother, he said he couldn’t sit still and not be involved in law enforcement in some capacity.

He said FIU Police Chief Alex Acosta asked him to join his team in terms of grooming for the future of the police department.

Moss worked on uniform patrol, public information, special projects and on a larger scope the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion.