Hialeah mayor driving with flashing red and blue lights when pulled over in Miami

Hialeah admin June 17, 2026 0 Comments

Hialeah mayor driving with flashing red and blue lights when pulled over in Miami

Miami police said Wednesday that Hialeah Mayor Bryan Calvo was driving with flashing red and blue lights activated on his city car when he was pulled over and cited over the weekend in Coconut Grove by a Miami police officer, even though he is not a sworn law enforcement officer.

According to Miami Police Department traffic citations issued Sunday morning, Officer Yasmani Gonzalez stopped Calvo on Grand Avenue after alleging that he failed to obey a right-turn-only traffic control device and operated a vehicle with prohibited red and blue flashing lights. The infractions resulted in two civil traffic citations. The vehicle involved was identified as a black Chevrolet owned by the Hialeah Police Department.

Calvo’s office previously denied to the Miami Herald that he was driving with police lights activated on the vehicle, and the officer wrote only “prohibited lights on vehicle – red/blue/flashing.” However, Miami Police spokesman Michael Vega confirmed to the Herald after the citations became available that, according to the officer’s account, the red and blue lights on the rear of the SUV were flashing at the time of the stop.

The Florida statute that regulates the use of emergency and colored lights on vehicles generally prohibits vehicles from displaying certain emergency-style lighting, including blue lights visible from the front, unless the vehicle is specifically authorized under state law, such as those used by certain law enforcement or emergency-response agencies.

Miami-Dade Court records show Calvo, an attorney who at 28 is the youngest mayor ever elected in Hialeah, entered pleas of not guilty to both citations shortly after they became available online Tuesday afternoon. A pretrial hearing is expected, although a date had not been posted as of publication.

Vega said that the officer who stopped Calvo — who is often chauffeured by his sergeant-at-arms but was driving himself on Sunday — did not believe he was attempting to impersonate a law enforcement officer and, as a result, he was not detained on an impersonation-related offense. Instead, Calvo was issued traffic citations that together carry a combined total of $308 in fines.

Vega noted that “you cannot have anything emitting from the car in the front or in the back or on the side that’s blue on any car unless you are a law enforcement officer,” he said. “Having red and blue lights is illegal.”

When asked Wednesday about the new information from Miami police, Calvo’s spokesman declined to answer questions and referred the Herald to the same statement he provided on Monday.

“I was issued two civil traffic citations while operating a city-owned vehicle assigned to me as mayor. One citation relates to a traffic maneuver and the second concerns equipment that was installed on a vehicle owned by and registered to the Hialeah Police Department, a vehicle that was retrofitted before I took office and before the vehicle was assigned to me.”