Miami Beach Commissioner who bent the rules so he could to apply to become a cop, has withdrawn his application

Miami Beach Commissioner Ed Tobin
has dreamed of becoming a cop
since he was knee-high to a grasshopper.

Less than a month after Miami Beach commissioners voted unanimously to grant fellow commissioner Ed "Mad Dog" Tobin a waiver that allowed him to bypass a city rule and apply to become a Miami Beach cop, his lifelong dream of wearing a badge and gun has crashed and burned.

The Miami Herald's Joey Flechas reports today that the 53 year-old Tobin has withdrawn his application to become a police officer.

Tobin told Flechas that he made the decision “in the best interest of me and my family.”

But Random Pixels has learned from a high-level City Hall source that Tobin's application never made it past first base.

Last week, Tobin appeared before an oral board that's the first part of the police department's screening process designed to weed out and eliminate unfit candidates. My source tells me that Tobin incorrectly answered an important question relating to ethics.

A few hours after his appearance before the board - and in what sources term a highly unusual move - Tobin got a phone call from Miami Beach Police Chief Dan Oates who informed him that his application was dead in the water.

My City Hall source tells me that after receiving the bad news, Tobin decided to withdraw his application rather than risk the embarrassment of being rejected by the department as unfit.

Last year the Miami Herald reported that a Miami Beach police major filed an ethics complaint against Tobin.

A Miami Beach police major who was wrapped up in a politically-charged internal affairs probe has filed an ethics complaint against City Commissioner Ed Tobin.

Maj. Angel Vazquez claims that Tobin used his political office to influence hirings and firings of a police chief and city manager, as well as two police recruits.

Tobin denies the allegations and said Vazquez is just a disgruntled employee.

Vazquez’s complaint to the Miami-Dade ethics commission, says that Tobin “used his official position to influence and secure special privileges” for a friend who was being considered for Miami Beach’s chief of police job. The friend was former Bal Harbour Police Chief Tom Hunker, who was later fired from that city as the U.S. Department of Justice investigates questionable spending of millions of dollars confiscated by Bal Harbour from drug dealers and money launderers. [Vazquez's complaint was eventually dismissed.]

By withdrawing his application, Tobin can apply again at a future date. His term as commissioner expires next year.

Last month Miami New Times reported that "it's been [Tobin's] dream to be a cop since was a kid."

Miami Beach Commissioner
Ed "Mad Dog" Tobin.

From the age of 13 to 18, [New Times reported] he was a Miami Beach Police Explorer, a kind of traineeship facilitated by the Boy Scouts. As part of the program, Tobin did community service and tagged along on midnight patrols with officers.

"I was in uniform," Tobin says. "And we were trained -- we would use the radio, and a lot of times they would let us drive."
[...]
If he's hired, Tobin says, he'll give up his commissioner benefits and start as an entry-level policeman, just like anyone else would.

"Just wait till you see," he says. "I'm going to be great at it."

So what's Tobin's next move?

He told the Herald's Flechas, "I have something else I’m looking into, which I can’t get into.”