About the Chief

Retired Chief David A. Rivero served as Chief of Police at the University of Miami from October 2006 until he retired in April 2025. In more than 18 years at UM, he oversaw a sworn staff of 33 police officers and another 30 security and support staff. He managed a budget of over $10 million and was responsible for the security of a 230-acre campus and more than 25,000 students, faculty and employees.

During his 26-year career with the Miami Police Department, he held supervisory and command positions over several of the Department’s most important functions. These included the Field Operations Division, Homicide, Media Relations, Internal Affairs, Training, the Criminal Investigations Division and the Little Havana Neighborhood Enhancement Team (NET). He also served as Commander of the Coral Way NET. His last position with the Miami Police Department was Major of Police in charge of the Central Patrol District. There he was responsible for all crime-fighting operations and other city functions for four NETs covering the Overtown, Wynwood, Allapattah and Edgewater neighborhoods. The Central District had 3 Police Commanders, 9 Neighborhood Resource Officers, 7 Lieutenants, 28 Sergeants and 195 Police Officers, and a budget of nearly $20 million. It also had three undercover Problem-Solving Teams, which handled most of the street-level narcotics enforcement and quality-of-life concerns.

Chief Rivero has won numerous awards. The one he is most proud of is a personal commendation from FBI Director Louis Freeh for his role in “Operation Greenpalm” while with the Miami Police Department. Then-Lieutenant Rivero started the fourteen-month investigation, which targeted corrupt politicians. It ended with the successful arrest and prosecution of the City of Miami Budget Director, the City Manager, a City Commissioner, a County Commissioner, the Seaport Director and two lobbyists. The investigation involved more than two hundred consensual and covert video and audio recordings, two Title III wiretaps, several surreptitious search warrants and countless hours of video and photographic surveillance. Much of that surveillance used some of the most sophisticated equipment in the FBI’s arsenal. For the fourteen months of the investigation, Rivero was detached to the FBI, where he received its highest top-secret security clearance.

In 2000, he was called on to lead the Miami Police Department’s investigation into several questionable police shootings. In a joint investigation with the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office, 13 police officers were indicted for conspiracy to violate civil rights in a pattern of gun-planting incidents dating back to 1996. Two of the officers pled guilty and cooperated with the investigation. After the investigation, then-Captain Rivero was asked to help rewrite the department’s shooting policy. He also personally wrote the Miami Police departmental order on how to conduct criminal investigations.

As a police major, he was a co-chair of the State Attorney’s Office committee on crimes against law enforcement officers. He served on the executive board of the Medical Examiner’s Fatality Review Team, which reviews all domestic-violence murders in Miami-Dade County. He has extensive experience commanding Field Forces during civil unrest and the Emergency Operations Center during disasters. He was also the Miami Police Department’s top spokesperson for five years.

AWARDS

Chief Rivero started and coordinated a unique criminal investigative project in the Miami Police Homicide Unit, which earned the Unit Citation along with many other awards. Through this project he led the Department’s new approach to homicide investigations, which solved murders proactively rather than reactively. Using the Racketeering and Continuing Criminal Enterprise statutes, the Homicide Unit dismantled a violent drug organization known as the “John Does” and solved almost 20 violent “who-done-it” murders. Through the unit’s efforts and his leadership, Homicide posted the City’s highest homicide clearance rate (84%) and received a special commendation from the Chief of Police. Under his direction, the United States Attorney’s Office, for the first time in South Florida history, prosecuted homicide offenders for racketeering based on violent acts rather than for murder. This made the cases easier to prosecute while carrying the same sentence as murder. More than a dozen members of the “John Doe” organization are now serving life sentences.

As Homicide Detectives with Miami PD, in what was then called the “Murder Capital of the World,” David Rivero and John Buhrmaster formed one of the most successful teams in the Department’s history. The two won numerous Officer of the Month awards from both the city and the county and were selected as Florida’s Most Outstanding Officers of the Year.

Articles about Chief Rivero:

The University of Miami announces Chief Rivero’s retirement.

The Miami Hurricane News article about Chief Rivero’s accomplishments.

Proactive Patrolling through the use of Patrol Scripts.