MIAMI – When Stephanie V. Daniels was little, she didn’t imagine that one day she would become the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, the eighth largest in the country.
Daniels served in the department for over three decades before Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava trusted her to become the first woman to serve as MDPD director.
Most recently, Daniels said she wants the department’s police officers and leadership to be closer to their community.
“I’m having conversations with staff to make sure they understand that I want the community to have a voice,” Daniels said.
During her career with MDPD, Daniels was promoted to detective, sergeant, and lieutenant before becoming an assistant director and a deputy director.
A tragedy forced her to step up as interim director and later as director.
Her predecessor, Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez, was hospitalized after a shooting over the summer in the Tampa area that cost him his left eye. It could have cost him his life.
“It was devastating,” Daniels said.
Daniels said that although it was all very confusing she had to step up quickly as the department’s interim director.
“Getting the officers and staff to understand or know what happened without knowing what happened ... it was difficult,” Daniels said.
Daniels grew up in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood and joined the department as a police officer in 1992. She went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration.
Daniels is already an inspiration to girls in the community.
“I want little Black girls and brown girls to know that whatever you want to do you can do it,” Daniels said.