Miami-Dade voters will elect their first sheriff in decades. They have 2 solid choices

On January 7, 2025, the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) will transition back to a Sheriff’s Office for the first time in nearly six decades. Voters in the county can choose from two capable candidates to lead the returning office.

It’s a big job. MDPD is the largest law enforcement agency in the Southeast and the eighth largest in the nation, with approximately 5,000 employees, including approximately 3,200 sworn officers, and a budget of $1 billion.

On the Republican side, yes Rosie Cordero-Stutza 28-year MDPD veteran who worked his way up to assistant police director. On the Democratic side James Reysa longtime member of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, who today oversees Miami-Dade’s police, fire and corrections departments as chief of public safety.

Both candidates boast decades of experience in uniformed service. Both have leadership credentials. Some of their proposals for the Sheriff’s Office overlap, such as a “public corruption unit” to investigate crimes by elected officials and plans to improve mental health care to help officers on patrol and off duty.

They also agree that a citizen oversight board would promote greater trust and community involvement, though they differ on the amount of power they want to give the panel. Reyes’ version would have more teeth, including the ability to vote on disciplinary recommendations, while Cordero-Stutz envisions a panel that would focus more on community issues than police problems.

Cordero-Stutz, 55, has more practical experience in law enforcement is a trait she believes makes her more suitable for sheriff. Reyes, 47, argues that his executive leadership experience is gaining traction, noting that the sheriff will not be expected to patrol but will have to make important decisions while having a huge budget and staff at his disposal.

Born in New York City, Cordero-Stutz moved to South Florida and began working for MDPD in 1966, starting as a street cop and receiving steady promotions to detective, major, chief and other positions, including her current role as deputy director of the research services. .

In August she was elected chairman from the FBI National Academy Association, a nonprofit organization of senior law enforcement professionals focused on improving police practices. She is the first Hispanic woman chosen to lead the organization, whose members must be graduates of the FBI Academy at Quantico.

Specifically, she leads the county’s Sheriff International Transition Team to ensure the smooth transition of MDPD from county government.

Reyes was born in Cuba and immigrated to Miami-Dade as a child, spending his formative years in the county before joining the Broward Sheriff’s Office. He briefly served as a patrol officer before going into administration, according to the Miami Herald. In January 2019, he was promoted to colonel overseeing the Ministry of Administration summary of his Broward career shows. Are LinkedIn page states the role of executive director.

Then mayor of Miami-Dade Daniella Levine Cava hired him in 2022 to lead Broward’s corrections department. He took on a similar role in Miami-Dade, bringing the county’s Corrections Department to substantial federal compliance for the first time in more than a decade, before Levine Cava promoted named him head of public safety last year.

Reyes leaned on his nearly 25 years of experience, a massive war chest and ample political and institutional support to convincingly win a four-way Democratic primary in August. As of October 18, he had raised $2.1 million and spent $1.65 million.

Cordero-Stutz, who narrowly emerged victorious in the 11-way Republican primary against some better-funded foes, raised $1.36 million and spent $1 million.

Along the way, she noted several high-profile endorsers, including ex-president Donald Trumpgovernor Ron DeSantisAmerican Sen. Marco Rubio And Rick ScottAmerican representatives. Mario Diaz-Balart And Carlos Gimenez, 27 active Florida sheriffsthe Hispanic Police Officers Association, former MDPD director Juan Perez and former Miami-Dade commissioner Sally Heymana democrat.

Trump’s support helped in the primaries, but in a general election where most voters in the district are Democratic and many others lament what happened during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, it could be an albatross.

It was an “obviously very difficult” event and a “dark day in the history of America,” she said at a meeting. debate in mid-October, but while some people there broke the law and deserved to be arrested and punished, others attended the “Save America” ​​rally to express their freedom of speech.

Cordero-Stutz argued that Trump supported her because of her qualifications, not her political leanings.

She was also targeted attack ads from Reyes’ campaign, which claimed she was sentenced to a week in jail for missing a deposition in 2013 and overseeing job cuts within MDPD the following year. The advertisements, which Cordero-Stutz “dirty politics” did not include the fact that she never served prison time for the incident, which involved a timeshare, and that she was in no position to hire or fire officers when the department fell into dire financial straits during the Great Recession.

Reyes, meanwhile, received support from Sheriff’s Department Levine Cava Ric Bradshaw of Palm Beach County and Gregory Toon of Broward, five sitting Miami-Dade commissioners and many others current and former local chosen civil servantsincluding former MDPD Freddy Ramirezwho ran last year and was considered a frontrunner for the sheriff’s job until he attempted suicide and withdrew from the race

SEIU Local 1991, United Teachers of Dadethe South Florida Police Benevolent Associationthe National Association of Police Organizationsthe South Florida AFL-CIO And AFSCME FloridaOthers also supported him.

Reporting by Florida bulldog this year raised questions about Reyes’ time at the Broward Sheriff’s Office, which the agency seemed reluctant to clarify. The outlet highlighted a $750,000 purchase, Reyes OK’d for bleed-control stations and kits, from a company that previously employed Tony, who later sold his products through his own company.

When Florida Bulldog requested records from the Broward Sheriff’s Office about Reyes’ services there and any disciplinary actions taken against him, he was told the records did not exist, could not be found or had been destroyed.

Reyes also received criticism after the Copa América Final erupted into chaos in mid-July, when football fans without tickets stormed the gates of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, leading to injuries and arrests.

Levine Cava’s office said MDPD had assigned “more than 550 officers” to monitor security at the stadium, but noted that security responsibilities for the event also fell to Copa América organization CONMEBOL and “other law enforcement agencies.”

But Reyes won points for transparency in September when he quickly switched release body camera footage of officers who pulled over and forcibly detained the Miami Dolphins player Tyreek Hill. Both Reyes and Cordero-Stutz criticized the interaction and agreed that problematic behavioral patterns and discrepancies within the ministry regarding race need to be addressed.

Miami-Dade voters haven’t elected a sheriff since 1966, when the county eliminated the position after a grand jury found rampant corruption within the Bureau and subsequently indicted the sheriff: Talmadge “TA” Buchananfor perjury and failure to report campaign contributions. Today, Miami-Dade is the only county in Florida without an elected sheriff.

That will soon change, following a 2018 referendum in which 58% of Miami-Dade voters joined a statewide supermajority in approving a constitutional amendment that required Miami-Dade to join the other 66 counties of Florida would join to have an elected sheriff in January.

While Cordero-Stutz and Reyes both live in Broward, they have committed to moving to Miami-Dade on Nov. 5 with a win.

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