BOCA RATON MALL LOCKDOWN: Readers Call Police Response A “Failure”

Readers Say Boca Raton Police Department Failed Miserably During Town Center Mall Lockdown. Poor Communication. Chief Nowhere. Confused Officers. City Emergency System Not Activated. What Did You See?

BY: ANDREW COLTON | Editor and Publisher

BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2024 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — The Boca Raton Police Department, under the direction of Chief Michele Miuccio, failed miserably Saturday as it attempted to mitigate the false shooting threat called in by the fan of an online “gamer” live streaming a shopping visit to Boca Raton Town Center Mall. That’s the takeaway from several BocaNewsNow.com readers who were trapped in the mall, and members of the law enforcement community speaking anonymously.

BocaNewsNow.com was first to report Saturday on the mall lockdown following a false threat of “guns and bombs” in a vehicle in the parking lot. The threat was apparently called in by someone who was watching a “live stream” of a popular online gamer who uses the screen name “Clix.” Cody “Clix” Conroe, a female companion, and a teen live streaming the event were shopping at the mall while thousands of people watched on the Twitch platform. Some of those fans were in the mall and seemingly thought it would be funny if the mall was locked down during the live stream. It’s believed one of them called in a threat which led to a five hour ordeal. But unlike a similar false shooting threat just weeks ago in the same mall, this one was apparently badly mishandled by the Boca Raton Police Department and the City’s communications team.

COMMUNICATION FAILURE

Among the issues: The City of Boca Raton’s emergency alert system, which is used routinely for mundane incidents like “wires down” or “a bridge is stuck in the open position” was not utilized by the police department to provide realtime information to a panicked public. The Boca Raton Police Department’s own media professional did not immediately respond to requests for information after fearful readers reached out to BocaNewsNow.com for help locating loved ones. That communications professional then directed the media to Facebook. It’s ironic in a time where law enforcement nationally is trying to move away from the falsehoods of social media that the Boca Raton Police Department wants the public to rely on Facebook and the politically charged “X” as sources of information. (We note it also may be a violation of Florida Statute 119).

Panicked families separated from loved ones were apparently given no reunification assistance by Boca Raton police officers at the mall. BocaNewsNow.com continues to receive reports of officers appearing confused and angry — unaware of who was doing what, saying what, or what was supposed to be happening. In fact, while the City of Boca Raton Police Department was posting to “X” that a lockdown continued, officers on the scene were apparently telling shoppers to leave.

One shopper who said they spent what seemed like hours in a storage closet shared this: “cops were belligerent and upset but not at the people, at their bosses. It seemed as if no one was telling anyone what they were supposed to be doing.” Several law enforcement sources tell BocaNewsNow.com that there was a major “command and control” problem Saturday afternoon as the situation unfolded. We note that it took four hours for the Boca Raton Police Department to confirm that the incident was a hoax — information BocaNewsNow.com confirmed less than 90 minutes after the incident began. We posted video seemingly showing the origin of the threat at 6 p.m. Police did not confirm the hoax until 10 p.m.

WHERE WAS THE CHIEF?

Boca Raton Police Chief Michele Miuccio was nowhere to be found. It is common in South Florida for a police chief or sheriff to address the public after a major incident. We see Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Broward Sheriff Dr. Gregory Tony, Boynton’s Chief, Coconut Creek’s Chief, and others issue public statements and make public appearances all the time. But Chief Miuccio as of Sunday afternoon has still said nothing. The Chief routinely only interacts with the public on Thursdays — when she posts a “Throwback Thursday” image on the Boca Raton Police department’s Facebook feed. Sources tell BocaNewsNow.com that multiple officers have left the police force over the past few months, blaming “morale” and “leadership” as the causes.

What did you experience at Boca Raton Town Center Mall on Saturday? We want to know the good and the bad. We were thrilled to share praise for the department weeks ago during a similar incident, but note that the negative reports we are now receiving can not be ignored. Please email news (at) bocanewsnow.com, or use the news tip menu above.