Miami-Dade Police Director Throws Hat into Ring for Sheriff in 2024 Election

Miami-Dade Police director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez announced this week his candidacy for the 2024 sheriff’s election.

Ramirez began training as a police officer in 1995, worked his way up through narcotics and homicide bureaus, handled criminal investigations and was finally appointed director by former Mayor Carlos Giménez in 2020. In 2022, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava gave him yet another title, that of interim chief of public safety, allowing him to also oversee the fire rescue department and the medical examiner’s office.

“This community and this police department is my life,” Ramirez told The Biscayne Times. “It’s my family.”

Rickey Mitchell, an attorney and funeral home owner, and Ruamen de la Rua, a city of Miami police officer, are so far the only other two people who have filed paperwork to run for sheriff. Ramirez and Mitchell, both Democrats, and de la Rua, a Republican, plus any future candidates, will face off in an August 2024 primary before the general election in November 2024.

Managing the fear of change

Ramirez’s announcement comes at a time when questions are being continually raised about how the sheriff will possibly alter the fabric of public safety in Miami-Dade County. The independent position will be reinstated for the first time since the 1960s after Florida voters approved a 2018 constitutional amendment that mandates the elections of a sheriff, elections supervisor and tax collector in each county. As of right now, Miami-Dade is the only county in the state where the mayor holds those powers.

The Board of County Commissioners has discussed and taken steps to combat the possibility of a new sheriff, demanding its own police force for countywide jurisdiction. If Ramirez wins, that worry could be put to rest.

“As we approach this transition to a constitutional office, it has to be led by people who have been in this department, that have been in this community, and ensure that during this transition there’s no change in service, there’s no loss of trust, that this community still knows that it’s the Miami-Dade Police Department that’s showing up to their house providing them service,” said Ramirez. “You can’t just come in here and flip the switch and change everything.”

Prior to Ramirez’s candidacy in June 2022, commissioners cautiously voted to retain the county police department as its own municipal force. HB 1595, however, a bill that passed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the past week, would prohibit that exact move, granting each sheriff exclusive jurisdiction in unincorporated county areas. The bill is now on its way to Gov. Ron DeSantis for final approval.

Of particular interest is how the new legislation would affect the existence of the Independent Civilian Panel (ICP), which has just recently gotten off its feet since being reinstated in 2020. Many have noted that it could be up to the sheriff’s discretion to retain the ICP as a form of oversight, or else the panel’s work becomes void.

When asked whether he’d voluntarily work with the ICP, though, Ramirez’s response was a simple, “Why not?”

“I believe in transparency and trust in the community,” he said, “and that’s part of it.”

His only requirement is that the ICP’s processes are conducted in good faith and fairness, and Ramirez says he surely believes they will be.

Permitless carry

Although Ramirez’s candidacy represents an effort to keep services on their current trajectory, the police department will inevitably be forced to adapt to new challenges moving forward. The police director will have to balance his campaign with his everyday responsibilities, including how to function with DeSantis’ new permitless carry law.

At an NAACP town hall event April 28, Ramirez, a panel member, addressed his concerns about citizens being able to carry a gun without any permit or training.

“The law is the law right now,” Ramirez said. “Our hands are tied, but where there’s opportunity, we have to educate the community, we have to educate our officers, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

He says the police department is already working on a video to release on its social media pages that will inform the public on how to stay safe amid the new law’s passage.

At the same time, he sent a message to the public that accountability is present in Miami-Dade County. The homicide department and the State Attorney’s Office will hold people responsible for their crimes, he says, including police officers themselves and community members acting recklessly or discriminatorily.

“Now, we don’t know who’s the good guy or the bad guy, but last time I checked, being a person of color is not a reason to be shot,” Ramirez said to the audience at Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church in south Miami-Dade.

A record of public safety

Also present at the town hall last week was Levine Cava, a close associate of Ramirez’s from whom he says he draws inspiration.

Ramirez was a former Republican turned independent when he first became police director. He says he made the change to remind his community that policing is “apolitical” and that he serves everyone equally.

In January, however, he switched his affiliation again, this time to Democrat, in preparation for his run for sheriff. He attributes that decision to the three years through which he’s seen and helped Levine Cava’s administration invest in public safety, including through the Peace & Prosperity plan.

Christian Ulvert, president of Edge Communications, is running both Ramirez’s campaign and Levine Cava’s 2024 reelection bid.

“At the end of the day, despite political affiliation, it’s Freddy who’s going to be here, the same Freddy that’s been here for almost 30 years and the same Freddy that you all know very well,” Ramirez assured as he spoke of himself in the third person. “I won’t leave anyone behind and I won’t let anyone down, and I’ll make sure that we keep setting the tone and moving forward and being the beacon of what trust and public safety should be in this country.”

That the county is set apart from other communities across the country is a sentiment frequently expressed by the police director. He describes Miami-Dade as “progressive” and “forward-moving,” always learning from its past mistakes.

Ramirez created the Homicide Street Violence Task Force while holding the rank of major between 2012-2013 in response to violent crimes in the northern end of the county, which was later extended to the south following the program’s success.

“I’m there in the good, the bad and the ugly,” Ramirez said. “My men and women are out there each and every day. You see us on TV. When people call the police and they call the fire department, they’re trusted, and that to me is priceless.”