The scheme was simple: sheriff’s officers would direct burglars to rob houses whose residents were away, then the criminals and cops would split the profits.
So claimed a 1966 Miami-Dade County grand jury report. The ringleader of the alleged racket? The county’s last elected sheriff, TA “Tal” Buchanan.
The same year that the grand jury report accused Buchanan of being on the wrong side of the law, county residents voted to abolish the position of elected sheriff. And for the 58 years since, Miami-Dade has been the only county in Florida with an appointed police director rather than an elected sheriff.
That is, until now.
Amendment 10, a statewide ballot measure that passed in 2018, requires each county in Florida to elect a sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, supervisor of elections, and clerk of the circuit court.
In Miami-Dade, it’s a crowded field of Republicans and Democrats vying to be the newly elected sheriff. There are 11 GOP candidates and four Democrats running in their party’s respective primaries on Aug. 20, with early voting starting Aug. 5. The top finisher in each primary will square off in the Nov. 5 general election.
The race looked much different a year ago. Freddy Ramirez, the county’s police director, had registered to run as a Democrat and was viewed as the favorite to win the job. But in July 2023, Ramirez attempted suicide, and while he returned to work a few months later, he withdrew as a candidate, leading to the wide open contest voters will decide next month.
The large field of contenders may make it difficult for voters to get a sense of each candidate. And non-party affiliated voters, who make up a larger voting block than Republicans in Miami-Dade, aren’t permitted to participate in the partisan primaries under state law.
With no incumbent, sizing up favorites is difficult. One candidate who’s made headlines is Republican Rosanna Cordero Stutz, who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump earlier this year. Democrat James Reyes, the current chief of Miami-Dade County Public Safety, is another notable name in the race. Both candidates live in Broward County, which has drawn widespread criticism.
Other controversial hopefuls include Joe Martinez, a Miami-Dade commissioner suspended after being arrested in 2022 on charges related to unlawful compensation. He is alleged to have sponsored legislation benefiting the owner of a shopping plaza in his district in exchange for $15,000.
Martinez announced his candidacy for sheriff at the Miami-Dade County courthouse after attending a hearing in his criminal case in June.
Whoever emerges Nov. 5 from the crowded field will inherit a staff of over 7,000 people and oversee both law enforcement and the county jail system. The budget for police this upcoming year is projected to be $948 million with corrections garnering an additional $483 million. The newly elected sheriff will command a base salary of $255,000 annually for their four-year term.
Ellen Cohn, a professor at Florida International University’s school of Criminology and Criminal Justice, worried that the change from appointed to elected leadership of county law enforcement could have negative impacts.
“You’re getting a popularity contest,” she said, ”You’re not getting who is the best qualified to lead a police department, which is a very specialized skill set.”
Under the current system, County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava appoints the police director, who operates under the supervision of the mayor and county commission. Levine Cava and the commission had attempted to introduce legislation that would retain many of the functions of county law enforcement under their supervision even as the top law enforcement post becomes an elected position, but they were sued by the Florida Sheriffs Association and lost those legal battles.
Nevertheless, Levine Cava, should she win her bid for re-election this year, will be the orchestrator of the transition.
“I look forward to working with the newly elected sheriff after next year’s election to ensure a smooth transition that doesn’t disrupt any vital safety services for our residents or visitors,” she told the Miami Herald in 2023.
But the newly elected sheriff will have to win over more than just the mayor.
“Police officers, the line officers, the lower and the upper level administrators, they all need to be able to trust their chief,” said Cohn, the FIU professor. “It becomes a question of whether the rank and file are comfortable with whoever’s elected. “
While Miami-Dade has an Independent Civilian Panel that can hold public hearings to review cases of misconduct or address grievances, it is unclear what oversight mechanisms of the sheriff and department will remain in place, said Daniel Rivero, a reporter at WLRN who has extensively covered the race.
“It’s a really dramatic shift in that there’s not an expectation of going before public meetings and explaining your actions,” Rivero said. “They [sheriff’s officers] don’t have to explain their actions. The argument on the other side is, ‘Well, if the voters don’t like it, they can vote them out.’”
Uncertainty also affects residents of unincorporated Miami-Dade, where more than one million people live. Currently, those areas are overseen by the county commission and if a resident has a concern involving policing, they can take it directly to their commissioner.
“Under [an elected] sheriff that’s not the chain of command,” said Rivero. “There is no chain of command.”
But it’s not just personnel oversight that could be in jeopardy, according to Rivero. The financial management of the department also could be altered. While the sheriff’s office will get its budget from the county commission, Rivero says that if the sheriff is unhappy with the budget, an appeal can be made directly to the governor to change it.
“They can force the county to shift their budget and give the sheriff’s office more money,” said Rivero, “It’s not the 13-person commission making a decision; it’s the sheriff and then the governor.”
