Jesse Scheckner
On Jan. 7, 2025, the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) will transition back into a Sheriff’s Office for the first time in nearly six decades. County voters have two capable candidates to choose from the lead the returning agency.
It’s a big job. MDPD is the largest law enforcement agency in the Southeast and the eighth-biggest nationwide, with roughly 5,000 employees, including some 3,200 sworn officers and a $1 billion budget.
On the Republican side is Rosie Cordero-Stutz, a 28-year MDPD veteran who worked her way up through the ranks to Assistant Police Director. On the Democratic side stands James Reyes, a 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 leadership credentials. Some of their proposals for the Sheriff’s Office overlap, such as a “public corruption unit” to investigate malfeasance by elected officials and plans to enhance mental health services to help officers on patrol and when off-duty.
They also agree a citizens’ oversight board would foster more trust and engagement with the community, 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 center more on community issues rather than policing problems.
Cordero-Stutz, 55, has more hands-on experience in law enforcement, an attribute she believes makes her more suitable for Sheriff. Reyes, 47, maintains that his executive leadership experience wins out, noting that the Sheriff won’t be expected to patrol, but will have to make major decisions while commanding a massive budget and workforce.
Born in New York City, Cordero-Stutz moved to South Florida and began working for MDPD in 1996, beginning as a street cop and gaining steady promotions to detective, major, chief and other positions, including her current role as Assistant Director of Investigative Services.
In August, she was elected President of the FBI National Academy Association, a nonprofit of senior law enforcement professionals focused on improving police practices. She is the first Hispanic woman elected to lead the organization, whose members must have graduated from the FBI Academy in Quantico.
Notably, she is heading up the county’s Sheriff International Transition Team to ensure MDPD’s detachment from the 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 going into administration. In January 2019, he was promoted to colonel overseeing the Department of Administration, a summary of his Broward career shows. His LinkedIn page lists the role as an Executive Director position.
When Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava hired him in 2022, he was leading Broward’s Corrections Department. He began a similar position in Miami-Dade, bringing the county’s Corrections Department into substantial federal compliance for the first time in more than a decade, before Levine Cava promoted him to Chief of Public Safety last year.
Reyes leaned on his nearly 25 years of experience, a gargantuan war chest and ample political and institutional support to soundly win a four-way Democratic Primary in August. As of Oct. 18, he had raised $2.1 million and spent $1.65 million.
Cordero-Stutz, who narrowly emerged victorious from an 11-way GOP Primary against some better-funded foes, raised $1.36 million and spent $1 million.
Along the way, she notched several high-profile endorsers, including ex-President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez, 27 active Florida Sheriffs, the Hispanic Police officers Association, former MDPD Director Juan Perez and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heyman, a Democrat.
The Trump endorsement helped in the Primary, but in a General Election where most of the county’s voters are Democratic and many others deplore what happened during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, it may be something of an albatross.
It was a “clearly very troublesome” event and a “dark day in the history of America,” 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 Trump endorsed her because of her qualifications, not her political leanings.
She was also the target of attack ads from Reyes’ campaign that claimed she was sentenced to a week in jail for missing a deposition in 2013 and oversaw job cuts within MDPD the following year. The ads, which Cordero-Stutz called “dirty politics,” did not include that she never served jail time for the incident, which involved a timeshare, and that she was in no position to hire or fire officers when the Department ran into dire financial straits during the Great Recession.
Reyes, meanwhile, gained endorsements from Levine Cava, Sheriffs Ric Bradshaw of Palm Beach County and Gregory Tony of Broward, five sitting Miami-Dade Commissioners and many other current and former local elected officials, including former MDPD Freddy Ramirez, who last year ran and was considered a front-runner for the Sheriff job until he attempted suicide and withdrew from the race
SEIU Local 1991, United Teachers of Dade, the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, the National Association of Police Organizations, the South Florida AFL-CIO and AFSCME Florida, among others, also backed him.
Reporting by Florida Bulldog this year raised questions about Reyes’ time with the Broward Sheriff’s Office that the agency appeared averse to clearing up. The outlet highlighted a $750,000 purchase Reyes OK’d for bleed-control stations and kits from a company that previously employed Tony, who later sold its products through his own company.
When Florida Bulldog sought records from the Broward Sheriff’s Office about Reyes’ service there and any disciplinary actions taken against him, it was told the records either didn’t exist, couldn’t be found or were destroyed.
Reyes also faced criticism after the Copa América Final erupted into chaos in mid-July, when soccer fans without tickets stormed the gates at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, leading to injuries and arrests.
Levine Cava’s office said MDPD assigned “over 550 officers” to work security at the stadium but noted that security responsibilities for the event also fell to Copa América organization CONMEBOL and “other law enforcement agencies.”
But Reyes won points for transparency in September, when he moved quickly to release body camera footage from officers who pulled over and violently detained Miami Dolphins player Tyreek Hill. Both Reyes and Cordero-Stutz criticized the interaction and agreed problematic behavior patterns and discrepancies within the Department regarding race should be addressed.
Miami-Dade voters haven’t elected a Sheriff since 1966, when the county eliminated the position after a grand jury found rampant corruption within the Office and indicted the Sheriff then, Talmadge “T.A.” Buchanan, for perjury and failure to report campaign contributions. Today, Miami-Dade stands as the only county in Florida without an elected Sheriff.
That will soon change, due to a 2018 referendum in which 58% of Miami-Dade voters joined a statewide supermajority in approving a constitutional amendment requiring that Miami-Dade join Florida’s other 66 counties in having an elected Sheriff by January.
While Cordero-Stutz and Reyes both live in Broward, they have vowed to move to Miami-Dade with a win on Nov. 5.
