KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Hundreds of law enforcement officers are attending a private law enforcement conference in Kissimmee, Fla. this week called "Street Cop Training."
A New Jersey Comptroller’s Office report says the company taught unconstitutional policing tactics, glorified violence, and denigrated women and minorities.
The I-Team has discovered that Florida taxpayers’ dollars have gone to support this controversial company.
Report identifies 100 discriminatory or harassing comments
“I want to f.. ing die like 91 with hookers and cocaine around me, you know? Why wouldn’t that be your goal and objective?” Street Cop Training and former police officer Dennis Benigno said in a clip displayed on the New Jersey Comptroller’s website.
“These girls are not as wealthy; they need to do things to make money,” he said.
You can hear the laughter from the room full of law enforcement officers in the background.
The New Jersey State Comptroller’s Office subpoenaed and obtained hours of footage from a 2021 Street Cop Training Conference in Atlantic City and posted multiple excerpts on the site.
“What we found was really disturbing. Instructors taught unconstitutional policy practices,” said Kevin Walters, Acting NJ Comptroller, in a video message posted on his agency’s website.
The report said instructors at the 2021 conference made over 100 discriminatory or harassing comments.
“If you’re trying to get a little pudy, pudy poo, (expletive) whatever the hell you call it, there’s an approach,” instructor Shawn Pardazi told the audience, telling officers how to approach women while on the job.
Pardazi was a reserve sheriff’s deputy for the West Baton Rouge, La. Parish Sheriff’s Office at the time of the 2021 conference.
He also instructed attendees about vehicle pursuits.
“Run from me, somewhere along the chase, it becomes la, la,la la.. pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow,” he said.
Officer resigned after lawsuit alleged racial profiling and assault
Street Cop’s founder, Dennis Benigno, is seen in another clip discussing how he handles a civilian shooting video of him with a cell phone.
“Shut the f... up. You’re getting pepper-sprayed, f... ing tazed. Windows broke down mother... f’er ,” he said in the clip.
Benigno resigned from the Woodbridge, NJ Township Police Department after a Black woman alleged in a federal lawsuit she was “falsely arrested, racially profiled, and assaulted by the defendant officers based on her race and gender.”
The suit alleged Benigno jumped on her car hood, pointed a gun at her face, and told her he was going to shoot her.
The case was settled by the township.
Benigno is a featured speaker this week at a street cop conference at the Gaylord Palms Conference Center in Kissimmee.
26 law enforcement departments’ vehicles spotted in parking lot
The I-Team went to Gaylord Palms where we saw marked vehicles from at least 26 law enforcement departments in Florida and neighboring states.
The Haines City, Auburndale, and Sarasota Police Departments all had officers attend the conference at a rate of $699 per person, plus food, lodging, and parking.
Those local agencies declined on-camera interviews.
Auburn Dale Police Public Information Officer Lt. John Cruz said two patrol officers from that department attended, with one paying his own registration fee.
The Haines City Police Department sent one officer at a cost to taxpayers of $699.
Haines City Police Statement:
Weekly, our agency and agency personnel receive training announcements from across the country in reference to training that is available to Law Enforcement. The supervisor requested to attend this particular training course based on one of those training announcements. As with any course we send an agency member to, especially if it is the first time such as in this case, we ask the attendee to bring back what they learned (good and bad) and discuss it with us. The purpose of this is multi-faceted.
First, we can gauge the content of the course to see if it is in line with the current practices and principles of our agency. If it is not, then we evaluate the material to see if it is something that we do, do not, or partially want to adopt.
Second, we discuss the instructor(s)/ speaker(s) that conveyed the material during the course, to determine if they are the correct medium for our members to be learning from. If it is determined that the course material and instructors have beneficial content, then it is material that we could pass on to be used by other members if we decided to do so.
However, if it is material that is deemed to not be beneficial, or even improper content, then it is still very useful to us. We can use that type of material as an educational tool to train our members on what we should NOT be doing. We can use specific examples of bad practices or conduct, present them in the proper way (showing or explaining consequences), to better illustrate those “what not to do” situations. If after a discussion and evaluation of a course, we have any reservations about course content and/or the staff delivering it, then we do not send members to the training in the future.
Sarasota Police sent two officers to the training.
Sarasota Police Statement:
We sent two members of our Community Action Team [sarasotapd.org], who are the most senior officers on the unit, aside from the Sergeant. The mission of the Community Action Team is to address quality of life concerns throughout the community, conduct special operations based on current crime trends, and assist other units within the Sarasota Police Department with on-scene investigations and search and recovery. The members of this unit are bike certified and can often be seen patrolling area parks and neighborhoods.
The total cost per person for attending the conference is $1,948.50, which includes the course/fee/seminar registration, hotel accommodation, and meal per diem (excluding additional expenses such as parking).
I have attached the conference flyer, which outlines the topics to be discussed throughout the five-day training. While the flyer provides details about the sessions, I would like to emphasize that this training serves as a supplement to our ongoing in-house training initiatives. Additionally, I encourage you to learn about our recently implemented ABLE (Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement) training [sarasotapd.org], which equips our officers and professional staff with the tools to prevent misconduct, avoid police errors, and promote officer health and safety.
Tampa Police Department, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and Polk County Sheriff’s Office all said they did not send officers or deputies to the conference.
Organizers didn’t respond to request for an interview
We went inside the conference center, which is open to the public and hosts multiple simultaneous events.
I-team photographer Matt McGlashen was confronted after he was spotted shooting a Street Cop Training sign with his phone in the hallway.
“I'm asking you not to come back, ok?” said a man wearing a shirt which said “staff” on the back who did not identify himself. “If you do come back, we’re working with the sheriff’s department. So you’re not allowed to come back inside. So if you do come back, we’re gonna go for the next step. You understand sir?”
Multiple people wearing tactical gear observed the interaction from across the parking garage.
Moments later, hotel security arrived and followed us off the property in a golf cart.
We emailed the conference’s press contact but didn’t hear back.
“We are, in fact, the good guys”
Benigno posted a video response to the New Jersey report on YouTube.
“Almost a thousand police officers know exactly what happened during the 2021 conference, and not anyone complained that there was anything short of great training,” he said. “While we were painted as the bad guys, we are in fact the good guys, creating better, more well-trained police officers for a country that expects the best.”
Records show that since 2021, street cop training received payments from six Florida departments or agencies, including the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Department of Agriculture.
The OSC report said Street Cop trained about 2,000 New Jersey officers a year.
“Taxpayers paid for a training that normalized discriminatory and harassing behavior by public servants who are supposed to be held to very high standards,” Walsh said.
The company recently moved to Florida and declared bankruptcy in January.
Records show Street Cop Training owed Gaylord Palms nearly $250,000 at that time.
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