Will a new sheriff take over Miami-Dade’s police department in 2025? A fight is brewing

An elected sheriff is coming to town, but Miami-Dade County’s government may not be ready to give up all its policing power.

Florida voters passed a Constitutional amendment three years ago that, among other things, requires Miami-Dade to join all other counties in the state and elect a sheriff by the end of 2024 to take office in January 2025.

Currently, Miami-Dade’s mayor holds the powers of sheriff, placing Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in charge of a county police force with 4,700 employees and an $815 million budget.

In a recent interview, Levine Cava said she may want to keep control of much of that police force if she wins a second term in 2024.

The issue is dividing the County Commission, where one senior member is considering a run for sheriff after a career in law enforcement. Commissioner Joe Martinez, a retired Miami-Dade police lieutenant, said he wants the sheriff to take over the entire county police department, essentially replacing the current police director with an elected officer.

“That would not only be economic, but it makes the most sense,” said Martinez, who faces a term-limit exit from his District 11 seat in 2024. “The badges stay the same, the cars stay the same. Nothing would have to change.”

Why must Miami-Dade elect a sheriff?

Miami-Dade last elected a sheriff in the 1960s before a series of scandals prompted a 1966 county referendum to convert the post to an appointed position.

An elected sheriff doesn’t take over local police forces, meaning cities across Miami-Dade can retain their existing forces. That allowance is part of the debate in Miami-Dade, since the county’s police department provides municipal patrols in all areas outside of city limits.

Should Miami-Dade commissioners want to limit the reach and budget of a new sheriff, they could vote to spin off the county’s existing patrol units into their own municipal force funded by the special county property tax charged outside city limits, according to a June analysis by the County Commission’s policy office.

For now, the Miami-Dade Police Department “serves an interesting, almost hybrid role” as both the sheriff’s department and “the provider of municipal, local police services” to the more than 1.2 million people who live in unincorporated Miami-Dade.

The study says turning over municipal services to a new sheriff’s office would be a “turn-key approach” that “may have the least direct impact on the day-to-day operations and delivery of police services.”

What will a new sheriff mean in Miami-Dade?

At a committee meeting Wednesday, Commissioner Raquel Regalado urged board members not to assume all police resources must be surrendered to the sheriff by 2025.

“One of the misconceptions out there is ... Miami-Dade County police must go under the sheriff. That is not necessarily the case,” she said. “The board could maintain its own municipal police force.”

That’s the approach Levine Cava raised in a November interview.

“The sheriff’s specific role could be very narrowly defined, or it could be very broadly defined,” she said. “I do believe we’ve done an outstanding job with our police force under the purview of the mayor. My initial inclination is to maintain that same quality under the mayor’s supervision.”

In 2018, Florida voters approved changes to the state constitution requiring partisan elections for five offices in all counties. Those offices are sheriff, plus county clerk, elections supervisor, property appraiser and tax collector. Miami-Dade already elects its clerk and property appraiser, with the other three posts reporting to Levine Cava, a Democrat in a non-partisan post.

Miami-Dade’s government sued to try and block the amendment, but failed. In Miami-Dade, the ballot item passed with 58% of the vote. The measure needed 60% of the vote statewide to pass, and it did with about 63% of votes cast.

Florida law grants some specific powers to a county sheriff, including executing warrants and serving court papers, and general authorities, including keeping the peace.

That leaves Miami-Dade commissioners latitude to decide which existing police divisions and entire departments could be transferred to a sheriff’s authority ahead of the 2024 elections.

In most large counties, the sheriff also runs county jails, according to the commission analysis. In Broward County, the sheriff also oversees fire and rescue services.

So far, commissioners haven’t taken any steps to lay out a policy for what county policing should look like after an elected sheriff takes office. In 2019, Martinez reserved legislation involving the duties of sheriff, utilizing the board’s policy allowing any commissioner to place a “hold” on various topics.

That’s prevented other commissioners from drafting legislative proposals themselves. “I think we need a lot more public engagement,” Regalado said.

Martinez said he’s planning to hold public meetings at the start of 2021 before drafting his legislation, which would be a starting point for a commission debate on the future of the county’s police force.

He said Miami-Dade voters assumed they were voting for a powerful sheriff when they endorsed the constitutional amendment in 2018 — a sentiment Martinez said he wants to confirm in town halls next year.

“If that’s the feedback I get, that’s what I’ll present,” he said. “And the [commissioners] can do whatever the heck they want to do.”