New Miami-Dade sheriff; new day, new attitude | Opinion

With the election of Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz, Miami-Dade voters have chosen their first county sheriff since the mid-1960s.

Voters eliminated the office in 1966 — for good reason, after a series of scandals involving campaign contributions engulfed the sheriff, Talmadge “T.A.” Buchanan. Almost 60 years later, Miami-Dade has a sheriff again, after a 2018 state amendment created the post. Cordero-Stutz will be the Hispanic woman to run a Florida sheriff’s office, her campaign says.

A 28-year veteran of the Miami-Dade Police Department, Cordero-Stutz, 55, is a Republican who had Donald Trump’s endorsement in an election that saw all the Republican candidates for countywide constitutional offices win their races. She won with 56% of the vote.

“I will work each and every day to make certain that each and every corner of Miami-Dade feels safe,” she told supporters at her victory party Tuesday night.

That’s a good place to start. Cordero-Stutz has a big opportunity here. She can show voters that, as the leading law enforcement officer in the county, she is truly independent of politics. She brings a wealth of experience and, we hope, a fresh perspective to the role. Her tasks will be tough: She’ll need to maintain the level of service in Miami-Dade or improve it, serve as the face of law enforcement in the community and also manage a complicated transition from the county.

Cordero-Stutz is a veteran police officer who moved up the ranks of the department. (Her opponent, James Reyes, the current Miami-Dade chief of public safety, had run jails in Broward and Miami-Dade, but had never been a police officer.)

She’ll need that inside knowledge to work effectively and efficiently. She’ll have a department with 3,500 sworn officers and a $900 million budget.

The Miami Herald Editorial Board, which endorsed Cordero-Stutz in the Republican primary but not in the general election, was troubled by her refusal to denounce the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters during her candidate interview. However, we respected her experience and professionalism.

We appreciated her straight-forward take on how Miami-Dade police officers roughly grabbed Miami Dolphin star player Tyreek Hill and used inappropriate language during a traffic stop in September, calling it “unacceptable behavior from any law enforcement officer.”

We also were interested in her promise to adopt special training for her officers to further learn how to defuse tense situations with the public. Now that’s she’s been elected, we expect her to follow through with that promise.

And we liked her plan to keep using sworn officers’ uniforms, which are brown rather than the traditional sheriff’s office green, in order to save taxpayers’ money. It’s a small gesture but it indicates an awareness that she must consider what’s best for the community, not use the position to boost her own profile.

We’d also like to see a continued push for more transparency from the sheriff’s office with the community and the media, always a difficult balance.

One more point: Cordero-Stutz, who is married to a former Miami-Dade police officer, currently resides in Broward. We believe the sheriff of Miami-Dade, should live in Miami-Dade. Cordero-Stutz told the Board that, if elected, she planned to move to the county she’ll be in charge of protecting.

At a time when trust in law enforcement is paramount, Cordero-Stutz must keep her commitment to being independent and accountable to the community. She’ll be the face of law enforcement in Miami-Dade.

Florida voters statewide passed an amendment in 2018 that forced Miami-Dade County to re-establish the job of elected sheriff. The county mayor at the time, Carlos Gimenez, opposed the idea, saying the vote by the rest of the state violated home rule in Miami-Dade.

We’re stuck with the vote, like it or not. Now it’s up to Cordero-Stutz to erase the shadows of the past and prove that Miami-Dade can have an elected sheriff who truly serves the people.

Click here to send the letter.

This story was originally published November 7, 2024 at 9:01 AM.