Miami-Dade found more money for the sheriff. What does that mean for our safety?

Brittany Williams, Sep 23, 2026

When Miami-Dade County says it is investing in public safety, we have a question: Whose safety? The county’s newly adopted budget gives the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office more than $67 million in additional funding, bringing its budget to approximately $1.2 billion. County leaders also found $12.5 million to restore early-morning service on 45 bus routes. That is a real victory for workers who need to travel before 6 a.m.

But late-evening bus service remains unresolved. Commissioners are considering whether riders should pay higher fares to help restore it.

Put plainly: Miami-Dade found more money for the sheriff to police us, while people who work late may be asked to pay more to get home.

At The Black Collective, we organize with Black residents across Miami-Dade who know that safety is about more than what happens when police arrive. Safety is being able to pay rent and remain in the neighborhood you call home. It is being able to get to work and back home without losing hours or wages because the bus does not run when you need it. It is knowing your child has somewhere safe to go after school and people invested in their future.

For a family facing eviction, another patrol car will not pay next month’s rent. For a worker stranded after a late shift, it will not bring back the bus. For an immigrant family whose wage earner has been detained or deported, it will not replace lost income or childcare.

These are safety issues. County leaders should budget as though they believe it. The pressure on families is not imaginary. United Way Miami reports that 56 percent of Miami-Dade households live in poverty or earn too little to reliably cover basic necessities. People have already cut back. They skip appointments, take second jobs, move farther from work and lean on relatives to make ends meet. When government asks them to absorb a higher fare or fewer services, it is asking for another sacrifice from people who have little left to give. Miami-Dade residents are tired of being asked to sacrifice while their basic needs remain negotiable.

To be clear, restoring early-morning buses shows that residents’ voices can change a budget. County leaders listened and found a way to keep those routes running. Workers who travel at night deserve the same commitment.

The sheriff’s office has costs to cover, including raises under a labor agreement. The public deserves an honest account of those costs. But a request for more policing money should face the same questions as any other request: What exactly will the increase pay for? How will it make people safer? What evidence will show whether it worked? And what else could the county do with available public dollars? We are taxpayers, and we deserve transparency about what our money is buying and a meaningful voice in how public dollars are spent.

Those questions grew more urgent during the final budget hearing. Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz sought a larger increase than the administration initially offered, and commissioners added $11.5 million to her office’s funding. WLRN reported that the sheriff raised the possibility of appealing for more money through the state. Commissioners warned that further increases could put other county services under pressure.

Residents should not have to wait until the next budget hearing to learn what those tradeoffs mean for their neighborhoods. Each commissioner should explain how they will protect late-evening transit, prevent displacement, support young people and help families facing intensified immigration enforcement. They should tell us which results they expect from increased sheriff funding, then report back on whether those results happened.

Black people built Miami. We work in its hospitals, care for its children and elders, run its businesses and keep its neighborhoods alive. Yet too many of us are being priced out, pushed out or left waiting for basic services. A budget that calls this community “safe” while making it harder to stay housed or get home from work has missed what safety means in our lives.

Miami-Dade found money to keep buses running before dawn. It can work just as hard to get people home after dark. It can fund the things that help families stay together and young people build a future here.

If the county has money to police our communities, it must also make sure our communities can live, work and get home safely.

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Brittany Williams is field director for The Black Collective, a movement committed to building and promoting a shared Black agenda in Florida.

Source: The Miami New Times