Chief Art Acevedo’s $1.75 Million Miami Mansion

“Have you been dreaming about a home on a winding street in Coconut Grove?” Art has.

“Have you been dreaming about a home on a winding street in Coconut Grove?” 

That’s the opening line of the marketing copy for a beautiful $1.75m home with “a sparkling pool,” “outdoor dining terrace”, and a “separate guest house.” “One look and you’ll understand why the neighborhood homeowner’s association is called Utopia,” the reader is promised.

For Art Acevedo, Miami’s embattled new police chief, the answer to the “have you been dreaming” question was: yes! Earlier this year, Acevedo purchased the “Very Special Home” with “dreamy gardens and winding paths that create a magical setting” for $1,750,000. 

Why does it matter that Miami’s police chief lives in a $1.75m home in “The Grove”, which Miami Luxury Homes describes as “an extraordinary village” and “one of the most-sought-after-places in South Florida to call home”? 

For one thing, it matters because his neighborhood even has a Ritz-Carlton resort in case Art’s old buddies from the Houston Police Department come to visit. Actually, no need. In Art’s new home, “Guests will love the privacy of the separate guest house.”

It also matters because Art Acevedo frequently criticizes his political opponents--from the NRA to Black Lives Matter activists pushing for police reform--as out of touch. But how out of touch is Art Acevedo? Last week, the Chief put himself “in hot water” for saying that “it’s like the Cuban mafia runs Miami PD.” For those not in the know, like Art Acevedo apparently, “Cuban Mafia” is an extremely offensive slur because Fidel Castro used it as a derogatory term to describe Cubans who fled his communist dictatorship for Miami.

Being out of touch also matters when it comes to solving murders during a national rise in homicides. Residents of the City of Miami, and broader Miami-Dade County, know what it is like to experience the pain and loss of gun violence. However, as Lux Life Miami describes, “Coconut Grove is one of Miami’s safest places to live. The area enjoys 24/7 police control and has one of Miami’s lowest crime rates. Besides offering many gated or walled homes, the Grove also offers a good amount of waterfront gated communities for those seeking the highest form of protection for the family.” In other words, Chief Acevedo chose to live in a neighborhood out of touch with the pain of everyday people in the city that he is responsible for protecting. 

And, unfortunately, Art Acevedo’s record in Houston doesn’t inspire much confidence that the Chief otherwise gets it. As recently as 2011, the Houston Police Department solved 89% of the murders that happened in the city. That was before Art Acevedo came to town. An investigative report in the Houston Chronicle from 2020, the last full year Acevedo served as Chief of the Houston Police Department, found that the murder clearance rate had plummeted to 49%. In fact, the murder clearance rate under Acevedo was lower each and every year that he served as police chief in Houston than in any of the six years that preceded his arrival. Asked to comment on the Houston Police Department’s declining murder clearance rate under Acevedo’s leadership, a leading national expert on clearance rates told the Houston Chronicle that “those levels are low by almost any standards.”

The police union, which represents the rank and file officers in Acevedo’s department, is holding a vote this week to determine whether the officers continue to have confidence in Acevedo’s leadership. Then, on Monday, the city of Miami’s commission is holding a hearing to discuss Acevedo’s future. 

The good news for Acevedo is that if he loses his job as Miami’s police chief, there will be more time to relax in his backyard paradise: