By Francisco Alvarado, FloridaBulldog.org
For more than a decade, Miami Beach Police Sgt. Luis Corps quietly built a multimillion-dollar private security empire on the same streets he was sworn to protect, flouting conflict-of-interest laws and misleading his superiors about who his private clients were and how much he was making on the side.
His lucrative off-duty work flourished even as he served in the internal affairs unit, and it continued after he was explicitly told to stop doing business in the city. Corps’s activity led to a joint investigation involving Miami Beach Inspector General Joe Centorino. In a lengthy March 3 report, Centorino delivered a scathing warning to city leaders that lax oversight over employees’ side hustles leaves Miami Beach vulnerable to future scandals.
“This is the eighth OIG report on outside employment and is the most serious and significant to date,” Centorino wrote, “revealing a pattern of deceit by Luis Corps and the exploitation of the city’s process vulnerabilities to an unprecedented degree.”
In December, the Miami-Dade ethics commission found probable cause that Corps violated the county’s conflict-of-interest law. He settled the case by admitting to the allegations against him and agreeing to pay a $6,500 fine. In his report, Centorino said his office forwarded its findings to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s public corruption unit for possible criminal charges against Corps.
He remains on duty for Miami Beach Police. His annual salary in 2024 was $108,941, according to govsalaries.com.
Corps and Miami Beach Police spokespersons did not respond to Florida Bulldog voicemail and email requests seeking comment.
CORPS FLOUTS RULES
Corps is a 25-year Miami Beach Police veteran whose tour of duty has included bicycle patrol, SWAT, economic crimes and internal affairs. Last year, he was transferred to criminal investigations when the inspector general and the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust launched a joint investigation into Corps’s private business, the report states.
Early in his career he patrolled the entertainment district in South Beach, building relationships with bar, nightclub and restaurant owners that continued throughout his tenure. From 2014 through last year, Corps leveraged those relationships into private security contracts through companies he owned. Miami Beach Police regulations bar employees from working for private individuals and businesses in the city to avoid conflicts with the city’s interests and undermining public confidence.
In addition to Corps regularly violating this policy, the joint investigation uncovered that he failed to get required approvals from his superiors and the city manager’s office for six out of the 11 years he conducted his private business in the city. Besides revealing the unauthorized work, investigators found years of deceptive or incomplete financial disclosure statements required by city and county law.
Watchdog investigators pieced together bank records, payroll data and client lists that showed just how large Corps’ unauthorized off-duty operation had become. Between September 2017 and August 2025, Corps’s GC Security and a successor company, Tailormade Security, provided guards to at least 12 businesses and four private residences, including some of Miami Beach’s best-known watering holes and dining spots, including Joe’s Stone Crab, Mango’s Tropical Cafe and Bodega Taqueria y Tequila. Corps’s firms were paid more than $4 million during the eight years, the inspector general report states.
During the 11 years he ran his private security business, Corps only filed city-required outside employment statements for 2020 through 2024, and listed $40,000 in GC Security income for each year. He omitted how much he was paid by Tailormade and VC Security, a third company he owned. Corps also did not list the annual revenues for the three firms which would have shown six-figure sums that bars, restaurants and nightclubs paid his enterprises.
The inspector general and ethics commission obtained records from Corps’s payroll vendor that showed the security companies paid him a combined $256,000 in salary between 2020 and 2024. Yet, GC Security’s annual revenue in 2023 alone exceeded $700,000, and Vision Security’s annual revenue in 2024 was nearly $1 million, the report states.
SHOOTING EXPOSES CORPS
Corps operated his side-gig without any oversight from superiors, some of whom only became aware of him operating in the city following a 2023 shooting at Gala Miami nightclub, which paid the sergeant’s GC Security $399,232 that year. Two young women were injured and 37-year-old rapper Lowell Grissom was killed during the criminal incident. That’s when Miami Beach Police brass and city administrators learned that Gala’s security staff worked for GC Security.
Corps, by then assigned to internal affairs, showed up at the homicide scene where his employees were possible witnesses even though he had no official reason to be there, the report states. In an interview with inspector general and ethics commission investigators, Miami Beach Police Chief Wayne Jones said he had no idea Corps’s company was operating in the city and providing nightclub security until the Gala homicide forced the issue into the open.
Corps’s presence at Gala on the night of the murder was “very inappropriate” and a “serious conflict of interest,” Jones told investigators. Jones, who was an assistant chief at the time, and his then-boss, Chief Richard Clements, believed that Corps’s companies provided private security details only for the Miami Heat.
Former City Manager Alina Hudak told watchdog investigators that the Gala shooting and the conflict surrounding Corps’s role were discussed at a city commission meeting and that she viewed the situation as egregious. She believed Corps had been disciplined but did not recall directing the chief to terminate the sergeant or recommending another form of severe punishment, Hudak said.
“She was surprised to learn it was treated as a policy violation rather than a formal [internal] investigation,” the report states. “She also expressed her opinion that such outside employment would be inappropriate for a police officer.”
NEW COMPANY, SAME VIOLATION
Corps’s personnel file revealed that his outside employment violation only resulted in a “verbal conference” on an administrative form. Clements told investigators that “had I known about some of the other things that had transpired…potentially a more stern progressive administrative action would have been warranted.”
After the fallout from the Gala homicide, internal restrictions on Corps’s private business were explicitly spelled out on his outside employment paperwork, but that didn’t stop him from continuing his side business in the city. He shut down GC Security and formed Tailormade Security in 2024 under his wife’s name, the report states. Christy Corps is the registered agent and sole officer, listing the couple’s home address as the corporate office.
A separate Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services investigation last year found multiple violations involving Tailormade including not having a physical location, failure to post its license and required disclosure notice. Those violations led to administrative complaints, legal enforcement actions and suspension of Tailormade’s license, effectively shutting down the new company Corps had created to keep his security business going, the report states.
Yet, Corps signed a contract in 2024 to provide private security services to that year’s edition of Design Miami, an art fair that coincides with Art Basel Miami Beach. His new firm was paid $154,415. In his interview with an ethics commission investigator, Corps admitted he provided these services despite having signed a form acknowledging that he was barred from any outside work in the city.
The inspector general’s report warned that unless the city reforms how it tracks and enforces outside employment, Miami Beach risks a repeat of the Corps scandal. “This privilege can be misused without strong controls and oversight,” Centorino wrote. “Despite longstanding policies and seven prior OIG reports recommending reforms, key improvements remain unimplemented. The findings underscore the urgent need for comprehensive reform.”
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