A holiday to honor police in Miami-Dade would mean a day off for all county workers

Miami-Dade County may create an official holiday to honor police officers, which would also mean a paid day off for other county employees and close courts.

The proposal to celebrate “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day” each year in May is up for a final vote on Tuesday by county commissioners. The legislation would add a 13th holiday for the 29,000 county government employees.

If the county follows the procedure for the last holiday it created — Junetenth, which was added last year — Law Enforcement Appreciation Day would see the transit system run on a regular schedule, but closures would come for the county’s permitting offices, courts and senior centers.

The proposal to create “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day” comes from Jose “Pepe” Diaz, chairman of the County Commission. The holiday would land on Friday, May 13, this year, to coincide with National Police Week, according to Diaz’s office.

Will Miami-Dade create Law Enforcement Appreciation Day?

Commissioners deferred votes on establishing the holiday twice in March, and Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s administration has not weighed in on the plan. Diaz’s resolution instructs Levine Cava to create the holiday and negotiate amendments to union contracts to provide the day off for most workers.

The legislation could make Miami-Dade a rare local government that shuts down most operations in honor of law enforcement, said Jessica Cahill, a spokesperson for the national Fraternal Order of Police union.

“We are not aware of other local governments that have done so,” she said.

How many holidays do Miami-Dade workers get?

For Miami-Dade’s existing 12 county holidays, employees who keep core services available — including police and correctional officers, as well as transit operators — typically receive higher pay in exchange for working on the holiday.

At a committee hearing on the proposal last month, Commissioner Sally Heyman asked the administration to provide a report before Tuesday on higher payroll expenses for a Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.

“Nice idea,” said Heyman, who is chair of the board’s Community Safety committee. “But what’s the cost?”

Steadman Stahl, president of the Police Benevolent Association, the county’s police union, said the taxpayer expense of a holiday for police makes sense given the hazards of the job and money being spent elsewhere in the budget.

He pointed to Miami-Dade this year reviving its Independent Civilian Panel to review complaints of police misconduct, an office disbanded in 2009 over budget cuts that now has about $750,000 to spend through the fall of this year.

“We’re spending a lot of money on a civilian review board that, frankly, we didn’t agree with,” Stahl said. “But if the county wants to put its money into it, fine.” He called law enforcement “a profession constantly under attack” that deserves recognition.

Rachel Gilmer, co-director of Dream Defenders, a Florida group that advocates for shifting tax dollars from law enforcement to social services, said she didn’t begrudge county workers getting another holiday. But she questioned why it should be to honor police.

“I do think there are plenty of other holidays that should come ahead of Law Enforcement Appreciation Day,” she said. “Like Election Day. So people around the county could come and vote in their democratic process.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 4:06 PM.