In budget fight, sheriff is ending top perk for Miami-Dade leaders: police drivers

Miami-Dade’s mayor and commissioners are set to lose the police security details that shuttle them across the county as Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz announces an end to the service as a cost-cutting measure in an escalating budget fight with county leaders.

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The Thursday letter from the sheriff to Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and the 13 commissioners strikes at what may be the top perk of holding elected office in Miami-Dade. The mayor and commissioners are assigned plain-clothed deputies who drive the office holders day and night in black SUVs. That can include activating police lights to avoid traffic.

The planned cut comes weeks after the County Commission backed Levine Cava in rejecting about $42 million in extra funding for the Sheriff’s Office that Cordero-Stutz wanted on top of the $1.2 billion recommended by the mayor.

“The Sergeant-at-Arts Program costs taxpayers approximately $4.1 million annually,” Cordero-Stutz wrote in the letter, which was obtained by the Miami Herald. “By discontinuing this program, the MDSO will redirect its funding and reassign its personnel to support the agency’s operational needs…”

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Cordero-Stutz said the sergeant-at-arms program would end Nov. 9.

The letter arrived a day after the sheriff joined Gov. Ron DeSantis in Miami-Dade for a roundtable praising Florida’s Amendment 3 referendum, which would cut property taxes statewide. Like law enforcement agencies across Florida, the Sheriff’s Office relies on property taxes for the bulk of its funding. Cordero-Stutz backs the amendment, saying governments don’t need as much money as they currently receive.

She’s using a provision in state law that allows sheriffs to appeal rejected budget requests to the governor and Florida Cabinet. If successful, Miami-Dade would be forced to find the requested $42 million elsewhere in the county budget and give it to the Sheriff’s Office.

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This story was originally published October 22, 2026 at 12:09 PM.