UPDATE: John Timoney Is Not Looking to Pack up His Lexus and Head to San Fran

By Kyle Munzenrieder Fri., May 29 2009 at 2:18 PM

Categories: News

Newscom

Miami Police Chief John Timoney isn't exactly beloved by locals, and his BFF Manny Diaz will vacate the mayor's office later this year. What's "America's Worst Cop" to do? Well, there's a job opening in San Francisco.

The search for San Fran's next police chief is closely under wraps and appears to be a lagging process. CBS4 seems to think Timoney might be in the running, and when reporter Gary Nelson asked Timoney about it, he gave the standard, "No comment." Which more often than not is PR speak for, "Yes, but I can't really talk about it."

Timoney's career in Miami has been marked by overzealous police force at FTAA summit protests in 2003, his accepting a free Lexus SUV from a local dealer, frequent out-of-town trips, a no-confidence vote from his own cops in 2007, and ongoing allegations the department skewed crime statistics.

Though it appears San Fran officers are gunning for an insider, if that city's police commissioners choose Timoney, he'd have to be approved by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Update: Well, that was fast. Literally three minutes after we put this up, Timoney released a statement saying he is not interested in the San Fran job.

Recent reports that I have applied for the position of police chief with the City of San Francisco, California, are nothing more than rumors. I have neither inquired about nor applied for any position outside of the one that I currently enjoy here in the City of Miami.

See the rest of the release after the jump.

Over the past seven years, we have been able to do some great things in this city. We have cut crime rates across the board. Additionally, we have reduced the number of police involved shootings to a point that Miami was the only major city in recent history to enjoy a more than 23-month period without a single police involved shooting. We then went another 12-month period without firing a shot. This resulted in saving Miami millions of dollars in law suits. Currently, we are in the process of building a state-of-the-art police training center where law enforcement professionals can study and train, side by side, in a world class facility directly adjacent to Miami Police Headquarters. These are just a few of the accomplishments that we have been able to achieve since I took the helm back in 2003, and we have a long way to go. I look forward to being here in order to see these and other positive projects come to fruition.

I enjoy living and working in this wonderful city and I have no plans to go anywhere!

John F. Timoney