This week, Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz is marking 30 years in law enforcement.
She has served the county agency in various roles, ultimately becoming the first woman elected Sheriff in Miami-Dade County.
She took office in 2025 and is now reflecting on her first year on the job with pride, while also looking ahead to the future.
“I think we have had an exceptionally good year,” Sheriff Cordero-Stutz told CBS News Miami’s Lauren Pastrana in an interview Monday.
She is touting decreased crime rates in all major categories.
According to the county’s Crime Data Dashboard, homicides were down 18% in 2025 compared to 2024, and property crimes were down 13% in the areas served by MDSO.
“I attribute that to our continued positive engagement with our community, building relationships,” she said. “I attribute it to getting our deputies and investigators the tools that they need in order to complete their tasks. I attribute it to their professionalism and dedication.”
When asked what’s changed, she pointed to transparency.
“I want to talk a little bit about the culture change within the county to begin with,” she said. “That’s new. You mentioned the Crime Data Dashboard for all of our community to be able to know in real time where we are with our numbers, whether they’re good, trending neutral, or negative. It’s important for the community to understand that this is the tool that we use to get plans in place. So when they start to see a higher presence in a community, it is based on actual data.”
The Sheriff says MDSO’s presence will be strongly felt at the upcoming FIFA World Cup matches at Hard Rock Stadium this summer.
“We have a very large footprint with our federal partners in this, understanding that it’s 11 cities across the country all having games at the same time,” she explained. “So it’s important for us to be in communication, have the most up-to-date intelligence so we can respond appropriately. I think we’ve been able to do that very well because of our history working with them.”
Several human rights and immigrant advocacy groups have issued travel warnings for the games in Miami, citing the likelihood of heavy immigration enforcement.
“I would argue that we have to be afraid of the fear-mongering,” the Sheriff said. “If you’re doing the right thing, if you’re not breaking the law, we’re going to make sure that you have a safe and secure game and that you enjoy it.”
Sheriff Cordero-Stutz described the agency as being “in turmoil” before her election. And while she’s proud of the progress, she can’t reflect on the past year without addressing the biggest challenge she’s faced so far as Sheriff—the death of Deputy Devin Jaramillo in the line of duty.
“Deputy Jaramillo was a bright light, always. Everyone who knew him, who had been around him, really knew that he had an amazing future. He loved this agency,” she said.
Deputy Jaramillo was shot and killed when responding to a traffic crash. The Sheriff and numerous law enforcement officers from various agencies gathered at both HCA Kendall Hospital and the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office to pay their respects that night.
In her news conference announcing his death, she was both mournful and admittedly somewhat angry.
“I think it’s sometimes unfair in our profession that the questions are always, ‘How could you have done things differently for the outcome?’ Of course, we always go for the most positive outcome, and if we had a crystal ball and could tell the future, every scenario would be 100% perfect. We’re not perfect. We do our very best and even under those circumstances, bad things happen. So I always want to remind our community and those who can sit at home ‘Monday morning quarterbacking,’ for lack of a better word, that if it were easy, everyone would do it.”
As for the year ahead, the Sheriff says her agency’s theme is “Safety, Security and Service.”
“Miami-Dade County continues to be a hub for really large events, which we’ve talked about, but we’ve got the G20 coming up in December,” she said. “So I hope that we can continue to provide that level of service, not only to this community day to day, but also when we have this global platform so everyone can see what a good job we do in partnership with our community to provide public safety.”