To counter police backlash, Miami-Dade creates Law Enforcement Appreciation holiday

A holiday to honor police officers, approved by Miami-Dade county commissioners on Tuesday, will give county workers a day off in May every year.

Miami-Dade is likely the first local government in the country to establish a paid holiday to honor police officers, correctional officers, dispatchers and others working in law enforcement. Representatives of the Fraternal Order of Police union’s national office, and the local Police Benevolent Association union, said they’re not aware of a local government with that kind of holiday.

“You guys made history today,” said Steadman Stahl, president of the Miami-Dade PBA union. “I hope it becomes contagious.”

Commissioners voted unanimously to make Law Enforcement Appreciation Day the 13th paid holiday for the county’s 29,000 workers. The office of sponsor Jose “Pepe” Diaz said the first holiday will fall on Friday, May 13, during National Police Week this year.

Commissioners said they hoped the holiday would help show respect for law enforcement.

“Young people, in the past, they used to say: I want to be a police officer,” said Commissioner Rebeca Sosa. “Now they say no, because they are not respecting them.”

Details haven’t been released, but Miami-Dade typically will close senior centers, permitting offices, court clerk centers and other facilities during a holiday, while transit, police and emergency services continue operating.

Giving county workers the day off but requiring law enforcement to work led some commissioners to question the wisdom of the holiday.

“We’re going to close parks to honor police officers, who have to go to work anyway,” said Oliver Gilbert, the commission’s vice chairman, who voted to approve the holiday.

This is the second holiday that Miami-Dade created for workers in two years, coming after the establishment of Juneteenth as a paid day off last year to mark the ending of slavery in the United States.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she supported creating the holiday. Her administration said creating a new paid day off could cost Miami-Dade as much as $1.8 million in compensation for employees who have to work that day — either at a higher hourly rate, or as part of a lump payment for unused time off when they leave the county payroll.

Diaz said the expense and inconvenience of closed county offices were appropriate as a counter to “an anti-law enforcement movement” in recent years.

Miami-Dade County this year revived its civilian police review board, a step the local police union opposed. The Miami area saw large protests in the summer of 2020 following the killing of George Floyd during a Minneapolis arrest.

“Unfortunately, there’s been an anti-law enforcement movement that, in my eyes, has not been called for,” Diaz said.

“We have to support what they do,” he said. “They put their life on the line for you.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 6:18 PM.