Miami-Dade County’s new sheriff on Tuesday vowed to root out public corruption as she takes command of the largest police force in the Southeast.
“The cornerstone of public safety is public trust,” Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said in her swearing-in speech eight weeks after winning the county’s first sheriff election since the 1960s. “Public trust requires zero tolerance for public corruption.”
The speech at Miami Dade College’s North Campus marked a historic change in county government as Cordero-Stutz and three other newly elected office holders assumed authority over agencies that previously reported to Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. The mayor, a Democrat, watched from her assigned seat in the sixth row of the college hall as Cordero-Stutz, a Republican, laid out her agenda for law enforcement in Miami-Dade.
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On public corruption, she cited government officials as well as homeowner associations and those responsible for fraud against the elderly. Cordero-Stutz also pointed to the Jan. 1 attack in New Orleans as a warning for Miami-Dade and its tradition of playing host to large events.