Florida sheriffs preparing court fight with Miami-Dade County over police power grab

Sheriffs across Florida are preparing a court fight against Miami-Dade County ahead of the election for sheriff in 2024, with Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and commissioners trying to retain much of the policing power in County Hall.

“From what I see, a lawsuit is coming,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a break from a Thursday County Commission meeting on legislation divvying up police resources and authority once the first Miami-Dade sheriff in decades takes office on Jan. 7, 2025, as required by the Florida Constitution. “I think it’s likely.”

He joined sheriffs from Martin, Orange and Walton counties at the Miami-Dade meeting, along with a lawyer representing the Florida Sheriffs Association.

Advocates on both sides of the debate warned courts may ultimately decide who holds the most police power in Miami-Dade once county voters elect a sheriff for the first time since the 1960s, when a corruption scandal sparked a successful referendum to dissolve the office. Levine Cava holds the sheriff authority in Miami-Dade now, and is on track to be the last county mayor in Florida to serve both roles.

“I think no matter what decision we come to today, there is going to be a lawsuit,” said Commissioner Kionne McGhee, a lawyer. “I’m not quite sure why we are wasting any more time with this.”

Commissioners debated the issues too long for a vote on the competing sheriff proposals on the special meeting’s agenda:

▪ A resolution from a commissioner who may run for sheriff, Joe Martinez, allows a new sheriff to take over the entire existing Miami-Dade County Police Department.

▪ A competing proposal by Commissioner Raquel Regalado would spin off the current $400 million in the police budget that mostly funds police patrols outside city limits and retain that as part of a new county municipal force outside of the sheriff’s control. A sheriff would then take over the detectives, hostage units, SWAT teams and other parts of the current police department that provide countywide responses.

▪ Legislation by Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz goes further, mirroring the plan Levine Cava released in February that would grant the Miami-Dade sheriff even less power, with the mayor retaining authority over most police functions. The new sheriff would assume only tasks explicitly assigned by Florida, such as serving eviction papers and assigning deputies to protect county courthouses.

At issue is a sweeping change in who controls one of the largest police forces in the Southeast. A constitutional amendment voters passed statewide in 2018 requires all counties to have independently elected offices for sheriff, elections supervisor and tax collector.

Miami-Dade is the only county in Florida where the mayor also holds the powers of sheriff, overseeing an appointed director who runs the Miami-Dade Police Department. Levine Cava also can fire and hire the county’s supervisor of elections and tax collector, who currently serve as department heads taking orders from the mayor.

Letting go of the Elections and Tax Collector offices hasn’t prompted much controversy on the 13-seat County Commission. But the prospect of ceding power to a new sheriff has unleashed a wave of fiscal, organizational and political tensions — especially as various commissioners consider runs for sheriff or county mayor.

“Is there anyone on this dais who is running for sheriff? I think that would be pertinent,” Regalado asked in a reference to Martinez, a former county police lieutenant who says he hasn’t decided on a 2024 sheriff campaign.

Martinez snapped back that Regalado’s question “doesn’t belong here,” and responded with a reference to Regalado’s well-known mayoral ambitions: “There are people on the dais who are running for mayor, and may want to keep the police department.”

Florida’s Constitution grants Miami-Dade authority to exercise “home rule” — including the ability to exercise the same power as “municipalities.” Regalado and Levine Cava would use that clause to preserve Miami-Dade’s police functions, the same way police departments in Miami Gardens, Hialeah and other cities would continue as normal once a county sheriff takes office.

Outside of city limits, Miami-Dade provides local government services such as trash pickup, sidewalk maintenance and police patrols. Those are funded by a special property tax charged in the “unincorporated municipal service area” — a taxing district best known as “UMSA.”

“Why should the people living in UMSA be second class citizens?” Regalado asked. “What a lot of us want is equity.”

Jennifer Moon, the former county budget director who now serves as a policy advisor for the commission, said transferring Miami-Dade’s current police department to a sheriff in 2025 would be the most efficient option. “You would not need to have additional overhead staff, which you need for two departments,” she said.

Gualtieri, the Pinellas sheriff, said much of how Miami-Dade’s police force operates relies on the county mayor’s dual role as sheriff — power that goes away in 2025.

Miami-Dade must remove the green stripe on any patrol cars it plans to keep after the start of 2025, Gualtieri said, since Florida reserves that design for sheriff deputies. He called the fight over who gets to command Miami-Dade police an exercise that will only end up in confusion and extra expense if Florida courts can’t resolve the argument quickly.

“What are you going to do if there is an incident down in Kendall?” he said. “Three county police officers and three sheriff deputies show up and fight over who is going to take the call?”

This story was originally published May 5, 2022 at 6:30 PM.