Future Elected Sheriff Threatens Civilian Oversight

Miami-Dade elected officials are headed for a Mexican standoff with a powerful group of the state’s top law enforcement officers over how much police control the county will cede to a newly elected sheriff in two years.

The crossfire could turn the recently formed Miami-Dade Independent Civilian Panel (ICP) into collateral damage, as a new sheriff won’t be mandated to cooperate with the citizens’ police oversight board with investigations into officer misconduct or implementing reforms.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who has submitted one of three proposed legislative measures aimed at watering down the powers of the new sheriff’s office, told the Biscayne Times a newly elected top cop means that person would be the final decision-maker on law enforcement policies for the largest county police force in Florida.

“If we do not retain our police force, every policy decision the county commission has taken on law enforcement, like the Independent Civilian Panel, goes away,” Regalado said. “Decades of work. All of it disappears. We can’t force the sheriff to do anything.”

Yet any attempt to dilute the powers of the new sheriff’s office prior to the 2024 election would invalidate the will of Florida voters who approved a state constitutional amendment four years ago requiring all counties to have a duly elected top cop, Levy County Sheriff Bobby McCallum, told the Biscayne Times. McCallum is current president of the Florida Sheriffs Association, the organization representing 66 county sheriffs that spearheaded the campaign for the constitutional change, which applies only to Miami-Dade.

For more than 50 years, Miami-Dade has been the only county that doesn’t elect a sheriff. Under the current form of county government, the mayor appoints a police department director and the county commission approves the police budget. So far, Regalado, her 12 colleagues and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava appear unwilling to relinquish total control, McCallum said.

The 2018 amendment removed the ability for counties to abolish certain offices – namely, those of tax collector, supervisor of elections, property appraiser, clerk of the courts and sheriff. The measure passed with overwhelming support: 63% of Florida voters approved it and 58% of Miami-Dade’s electorate voted yes.

“We are seeing more and more resistance from those in office down [in Miami],” McCallum said. “We would want an orderly changeover. I think power is the key word here. I think if we are all being honest with ourselves, they are trying to subvert what the constitutional sheriff’s office is supposed to be.”

The ICP’s Concerns

With 4,450 employees including 3,168 cops, Miami-Dade has the largest police department in the Southeastern United States and the eighth largest in the country. Yet, for more than a decade, Miami-Dade Police Department officers haven’t had to worry about answering complaints from a citizens oversight board.

In 2020, then County Commissioner Barbara Jordan’s measure creating the 13-member Independent Civilian Panel passed by an 8-5 commission vote. Despite vetoes of two previous measures aimed at creating the panel, then Mayor Carlos Giménez did not object to the current version because it does not have subpoena power.

The ICP got off to a slow start. The board held its first meeting in October after 12 of the 13 county commissioners made their picks for who would serve on the panel. The ICP spent the next five months forming committees to set up its policies and procedures, sending some members to attend a national conference for citizens police oversight boards and conducting a search for an executive director.

In February, the panel voted to hire Nicolle Barton, who headed the police oversight board in Ferguson, Mo., and was also in charge of that city’s efforts to implement U.S. Department of Justice mandated police department reforms. A month later, the county commission approved Barton’s hiring as ICP ED.

Then, in a stunning about face announced in late April, it was revealed that Barton had change her mind, putting the ICP back at square one. Not surprisingly, concerns the Miami-Dade panel could become a toothless agency contributed greatly to her decision to stay put in Missouri.

Eddie Dominguez, one of the panel members who sat on the ED search committee, said he was “horribly disappointed” by the turn of events. “To get to this point is beyond frustrating,” Dominguez said. “We need a plan B."

The panel’s plan B could involve Christina Beamud, the executive director for the city of Miami Civilian Investigative Panel. The ICP voted to recommend that Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava’s office consider negotiating a consultant’s agreement with Beamud who will retire from her Miami job in the coming weeks. 

Now hobbling along, the 2024 sheriff’s election threatens to completely unravel the ICP by the time the board finds its footing. The 2018 constitutional amendment prohibits the county from transferring the role of sheriff to any other entity, which would include handling complaints of police officer abuse and recommending changes to department procedures, such as handling the arrests of mentally ill people.

At an earlier ICP meeting, County Attorney Oren Rosenthal addressed concerns raised by panel members about what the future of the police oversight board will look like with a new sheriff in charge. They brought up the possibility of amendments to Miami-Dade’s home rule charter that would specify a direct funding source for the ICP. Currently, the panel’s annual funding of approximately $750,000 is subject to approval by county commissioners every year during the budget process.

Loreal Arscott, a Miami attorney who chairs the ICP, also expressed concerns that the county attorney’s office would face a possible conflict of interest if it was forced to represent the ICP and the sheriff’s office in potential future lawsuits.

“We are an independent entity, and we’re concerned that there could be, that there is an inherent conflict of interest if our job is to conduct civilian oversight of police-involved incidents,” Arscott said.

Rosenthal explained to panel members that a charter amendment could be approved through a county commission-adopted resolution or a citizen’s petition. Both possibilities would require more than half of the votes to pass, he said. Time is also running out on that because charter amendments can only appear on a general election ballot. The panel would have a very limited amount of time to get a measure approved for the Aug. 23 mid-term primary or the Nov. 8 general election.

Options on the Table

At the meeting, Arscott pointed out that discussions of the sheriff’s impact on the ICP may be premature, as Levine Cava and county commissioners still haven’t held any extensive formal discussions about the proposals delegating police powers to the new sheriff’s office.

“Once [the county commission] finalizes their plans for the sheriff, then we will definitely see the writing on the wall,” Arscott said. “We’re holding our breath as well, and meanwhile trying to be as proactive as possible.”

Several options to address the conflict are being considered.

At a special meeting scheduled for May 5, county commissioners will evaluate the proposed sheriff legislative recommendations proffered by Regalado and Miami-Dade County Commission Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz. His resolution follows the recommendations made by Levine Cava in two separate memos issued on Feb. 22 and April 18.

According to the most recent memo, the Miami-Dade Police Department would continue to provide patrol and investigative services in unincorporated areas of the county, as well as county-owned government sites such as the Stephen P. Clark Center in downtown Miami, public transit stops like Metrorail stations, Port Miami, Miami International Airport and four general aviation airports. Homeland security investigations, air and marine patrol, special response teams, public corruption investigations, K-9 and bomb disposal units, the crime lab and the real-time crime center would also remain under Miami-Dade government’s control.

The new sheriff would only be left with duties related to court services such as serving warrants and subpoenas, carrying out evictions and protecting county court buildings under the Diaz and Levine Cava proposal.

Regalado is proposing a resolution that would formally establish the Miami-Dade Police Department as the municipal police force of the county’s unincorporated area but relinquish all other law enforcement services to the new sheriff. The commissioner told the Biscayne Times that her legislative measure would have a better shot at withstanding legal challenges that Miami-Dade is running afoul of regarding the 2018 constitutional amendment.

“Pursuant to our home rule charter, Miami-Dade is the only county government that can provide municipal services that every other county can’t,” Regalado said. “Under the constitutional amendment, municipalities get to keep their police forces. All we have to do is reclassify the Miami-Dade Police Department as the official municipal police force for the unincorporated area.”

Taking Sheriff’s Power Away From Voters

While not fully informed about every detail in the proposed resolutions, he and other sheriffs are tracking what Miami-Dade elected officials are cooking up, McCallum said.

“We have no intent for this to become negative and we don’t want to be adversarial,” he asserted. “We want it to work. The problem we have is that they are trying to dilute the office of the sheriff and go against the wishes of the people to have an elected sheriff that is accountable to the voters.”

McCallum, who is halfway through his third term, said voters in 66 counties get to judge whether their sheriffs continue to serve every four years.

“I would not still be sheriff if we didn’t do things the right way and serve our citizens,” he said. “That is what we want for Miami-Dade.”

The association is open to allowing Miami-Dade to continue providing police security at public hospitals and airports, McCallum said. While sheriffs don’t have to answer to county commissioners, they still have a say in approving annual budgets, he added.

“It is taking control from 13 people and putting it in the hands of the people,” McCallum said. “From our point of view, having an elected sheriff works in 66 other counties. We are held accountable for what we do or don’t do.”

Even so, if Miami-Dade doesn’t retain its police force in some form, the ICP will have nothing to do, Regalado warned.

“The sheriff doesn’t have any obligation to participate with the ICP,” she said. “Miami-Dade won’t have a reason for the panel to keep existing.”