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Aventura has so many reasons to be proud of their Aventura Police Department led by Chief Bryan Pegues. In addition to keeping the community safe, the APD has an extensive community outreach program, with one of them being the Homeless Initiative Operation.
Chief Pegues started this program over a year ago as part of the Community Policing Unit to handle the homeless in a professional and caring manner. The effort is to change the mindset on the homeless with a focus on identifying their needs and offering them options to find them services they need.
Recently, Aventura Police Officers Jeanette Jones and Joseph Antelo found an elderly woman on the streets of Aventura. Fortunately, she did have some ID on her, so they ran her name through local, state and national databases to see if they could find a missing persons report on her. She had some memories to be able to tell the officers that she moved to Florida about a year ago after her husband and autistic son passed away so she could be with a family member in Aventura, but the memories were fading. Officers Jones and Antelo finally received a response from a police department in Montana that confirmed there had been a missing person report on her for almost one year. The Aventura officers happily received information on a family member who lived in Aventura and contacted them immediately. Once the officers contacted the family member, there was a tearful, emotional reunion that happened within minutes of the family contact. This family reunion, especially in the midst of the pandemic, is a testament to the great community policing as one of their missions.
For more information, call the Aventura Police Department at 305.466.8966.
