On January 7, 2025, the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) will transition back to a sheriff’s office for the first time in nearly six decades. County voters have two candidates to choose from to head the repatriation agency.

It’s a big deal. MDPD is the largest law enforcement agency in the Southeast and the eighth largest nationally, with approximately 5,000 employees, including approximately 3,200 sworn officers, and a $1 billion budget.

On the Republican side it is Rosie Cordero-Stutza 28-year MDPD veteran who rose through the ranks to deputy police chief. He is on the Democratic side James Reyesa longtime member of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office who today oversees Miami-Dade’s police, fire and corrections departments as chief of public safety.

Both candidates boast decades of experience in uniformed service. Both have driving credentials. Some of their proposals for the Sheriff’s Office overlap, such as a “public corruption unit” to investigate elected officials’ misconduct and plans to improve mental health services to help on- and off-duty officers.

They also agree that a citizen oversight board would foster more trust and community involvement, though they differ on how much power they’d like to give the panel. Reyes’ version would have more teeth, including the ability to vote on disciplinary recommendations, while Cordero-Stutz envisions a panel that would focus more on community issues than police issues.

Cordero-Stutz, 55, has more practical experience in law enforcement, an attribute she believes makes her a better fit for Sheriff. Reyes, 47, argues that his experience in executive leadership is paying off, noting that the sheriff is not expected to patrol but will have to make major decisions while wielding a massive budget and workforce.

Born in New York City, Cordero-Stutz moved to South Florida and began working for the MDPD in 1966, starting as a street cop and earning steady promotions to detective, major, chief and other positions, including her current role of deputy director of investigative services. .

In August, she was elected president of the FBI National Academy Association, a nonprofit organization of senior law enforcement professionals focused on improving police practices. She is the first Hispanic woman chosen to lead the organization, whose members must have graduated from the FBI Academy in Quantico.

In particular, she leads the county Sheriff’s International Transition Team to ensure the MDPD’s separation from county government goes smoothly.

Reyes was born in Cuba and immigrated to Miami-Dade as a child, spending his formative years in the county before joining the Broward Sheriff’s Office. He served briefly as a patrol officer, according to the Miami Herald, before entering the administration. In January 2019, he was promoted to colonel overseeing the Administration Department, a summary of Broward’s career. His LinkedIn page list the role as Executive Director.

When Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava When hired in 2022, he headed Broward’s Department of Corrections. He began a similar position in Miami-Dade, bringing the county’s Department of Corrections into substantial federal compliance for the first time in more than a decade before Levine Cava. promoted he at the head of Public Security last year.

Reyes drew on his nearly 25 years of experience, a huge war chest and extensive political and institutional support to handily win a four-way Democratic Primary in August. As of October 18, it has raised $2.1 million and spent $1.65 million.

Cordero-Stutz, who emerged victorious in an 11-way GOP primary against better-funded foes, raised $1.36 million and spent $1 million.

Along the way, she noted several high-profile supporters, including the former president Donald TrumpGOVERNOR Ron DeSantisSense. Marco Rubio and Rick ScottUS representatives. Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez, 27 active sheriffs in FloridaHispanic Police Officers Association, former MDPD Director Juan Perez and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heymana democrat.

Trump’s endorsement helped in the primary, but in a general election where most of the county’s voters are Democrats and many others are mourning what happened during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, it may be an albatross.

It was a “clearly very upsetting” event and a “dark day in American history,” she said during a debate in mid-October, but while some people there broke the law and deserved to be arrested and punished, others attended the “Save America” ​​rally to express their freedom of speech.

Cordero-Stutz argued that Trump endorsed her because of her qualifications, not her political leanings.

She was also the target attack ads from Reyes’ campaign, which claimed she was sentenced to a week in jail for missing a deposition in 2013 and oversaw job cuts at the MDPD the following year. The ads, which Cordero-Stutz called “dirty politics,” did not include the fact that she never served time in prison for the incident, which involved time served, and that she was not in a position to hire or fire officers when the Department ran into a serious financial crisis in during the Great Recession.

Reyes, meanwhile, got support from Levine Cava, Sheriffs Rick Bradshaw of Palm Beach County and Gregory Tony from Broward, five incumbent commissioners from Miami-Dade and many others current and former local chosen OFFICIALSincluding the former MDPD Freddy Ramirezwho last year ran and was considered a favorite for sheriff until he tried to kill himself and withdrew from the race

SEIU Local 1991, United Teachers of DadeTHE South Florida Police Benevolent AssociationTHE National Association of Police OrganizationsTHE South Florida AFL-CIO and AFSCME Floridaamong others, they also supported him.

Reporting by Florida Bulldog this year raised questions about Reyes’ time with the Broward Sheriff’s Office that the agency seemed unable to clear up. The outlet highlighted a $750,000 purchase Reyes accepted for bleeding control stations and kits from a company that previously employed Tony, who later sold the products through his own company.

When the Florida Bulldog sought records from the Broward Sheriff’s Office about Reyes’ service there and any disciplinary action taken against him, it was told that the records either did not exist, could not be found, or had been destroyed.

Reyes also faced criticism after The Copa America final erupted into chaos in mid-July, when ticketless football fans stormed the gates of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, leading to injuries and arrests.

Levine Cava’s office said the MDPD has assigned “more than 550 officers” to work on stadium security, but noted that security responsibilities for the event also fall to Copa América organization CONMEBOL and “other law enforcement agencies.”

But Reyes won points for transparency in September when he quickly moved to release body cam footage from the officers who violently stopped and detained the Miami Dolphins player Tyreek Hill. Both Reyes and Cordero-Stutz criticized the interaction and agreed that problematic behavior patterns and discrepancies within the Department regarding race should be addressed.

Miami-Dade voters have not elected a sheriff since 1966, when the county eliminated the position after a grand jury found corruption within the office and indicted then-sheriff, Talmadge “TA” Buchananfor perjury and failure to report campaign contributions. Today, Miami-Dade is the only county in Florida without an elected sheriff.

That will soon change, due to a 2018 referendum in which 58 percent of Miami-Dade voters joined a statewide supermajority in approving a constitutional amendment requiring Miami-Dade to join the others 66 Florida counties to have a sheriff elected by January.

While Cordero-Stutz and Reyes both live in Broward, they have vowed to move to Miami-Dade with a Nov. 5 win.

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