MIAMI, Fla – Dozens of police officers hired through Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ flagship law enforcement relocation initiative to lure police officers living outside Florida have been previously accused of using excessive force and violence and arrested for crimes including kidnapping and murder, according to a study of state documents.

The Daily Dot first reported the findings that police officers hired through the program have checkered pasts by using the Freedom of Information Act and discovered

during extensive background checks.

The South Florida Times reviewed the state documents and learned that the program, so far clocked 2,012 police officers, most of them previously working in New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and California.

DeSantis created the $13 million recruitment program as an incentive to officers in other states who had to deal with COVID-19 vaccination mandates.

The program offered a $5,000 bonus up front if they become police officers in Florida.

State documents, however, suggested the officers who moved to Florida and received the bonus, about dozens of them, were accused of excessive force, physical abuse and criminal charges with murder being the most serious charge.

A deputy trainee in Escambia County, her name not revealed since it’s a ongoing investigation, was charged with murdering her husband; Joshua Bogwandas, who joined the Miramar police department was recently fired for domestic battery and kidnapping; a former member of the New York police department identified as Daniel Meblin, who was hired by the Palm Beach police department was once accused of improper sexual conduct.

In addition, New York City had to settle a case against Meblin for $160,000 for alleged violence during a 2020 protest against the police-involved deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

A Palm Beach police department released a statement that Meblin, who had complaints against him including abuse of authority and sexually propositioning a teenager, had disclosed his background during the hiring process.

"He has been an “exemplary” officer since he was hired in October 2022, the same month he left the NYPD, the statement said.

Meblin declined to be interviewed.

According to state documents, payments of more than $8.8 million were split between 1,310 newly hired officers, with most receiving $6,693 from the signing-on and additional bonuses.

Besides the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and the incentives, some police officers from New York relocated to Florida to avoid the backlash against the department for its handling of the George Floyd protests in 2020 after he died in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.

Protesters filed complaints and lawsuits against the department for allegedly being pepper sprayed by officers, assaulted, placed in a choke hold and were threatened with gun vi-

olence while officers pointed their firearms at them.

According to the New York Times, a civil rights lawsuit was filed against former NYPD sergeant Haitha Hussameldin who was accused of using violence against a teenager on her way to school.

Hussameldin, now employed by Florida’s Manapalan police department, accrued six formal complaints, including multiple allegations of abuse of authority and overuse of physical force in New York.

All the complaints were withdrawn or unsubstantiated.

Another former New York officer now employed in Florida was involved in two deaths, one of which led to a $100,000 civil settlement, the Daily Dot reported.

And in October 2022, the Apopka police department hired as an officer Justin Burgos, 19, the son of a retired NYPD deputy inspector, who a year earlier was charged with reckless endangerment, reckless driving and obstruction of governmental administration for driving his car into protesters in Manhattan calling for the firing of an officer accused of beating a Black suspect.

While other police departments in Florida hired officers with previous complaints and criminal charges, Miami-Dade County police department’s hiring requirements are strict.

DeSantis couldn’t be reached for comments.

Miami-Dade police detective Colome Argemis told the South Florida Times like police recruits, police officers from other cities and states must go through an extensive background check before they can proceed to the next level of the hiring stages which can take up to one year.

Despite DeSantis’ law enforcement relocation program, Argemis said police officers are not exempt from the department’s regulations.

"Drug use and other previous arrests are ground for disqualification," he said. "If they say they are here as part of the program, we have to follow, if the law is in effect by the governor, mayor or any government official to allow them to apply, "But the officers still have to go through the extensive background check and are disqualified if they don’t meet the requirements."