Mayor names interim head of Miami-Dade police after Ramirez shooting

DORAL, Fla. – Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava named a new interim head of the county’s police department Monday after incumbent Director Freddy Ramirez shot and wounded himself Sunday.

In a letter to county commissioners, Levine Cava announced she had appointed Deputy Director Stephanie V. Daniels to the position of interim director of the Miami-Dade Police Department “until further notice.”

She also named Chief of Corrections and Forensics JD Patterson to serve as the interim chief of public safety, which oversees MDPD, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation, Miami-Dade Emergency Management and the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office.

Ramirez holds both job titles, though officials haven’t commented on his future with the department as he recovers from his injuries.

Daniels, who grew up in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, has served with the department since 1992. She was the first Black woman to be named an assistant director of MDPD and the first woman to be named deputy director.

At the time of her promotion to assistant director in 2016, then-Director Juan Perez said he could think of no one more tenacious, respected and with more integrity to fill the role.

Patterson was a longtime MDPD officer and eventually served as director of the agency after then Mayor Carlos Gimenez appointed him as the county’s top cop in 2013.

Patterson is moving into an old role, at least temporarily; he previously held the role of chief public safety officer under Levine Cava before she moved him to overseeing the corrections department in a 2022 staff shakeup.

“Please join me in continuing to pray for Chief Ramirez’s swift recovery, as we thank Deputy Director Daniels and Chief Patterson for their service,” Levine Cava wrote to commissioners.