Stephanie V. Daniels, who has served with the Miami-Dade Police Department since 1992, is not known for shying away from big roles.
Daniels, who recently made history by becoming the first woman to be named Deputy Director of the Miami-Dade PD, has been appointed as MDPD Interim Director until further notice.
It was announced that she would take over the department after Alfredo "Freddy" Ramirez, Chief of Safety and Emergency Response and Director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, was hospitalized for critical self-injury in what appears to be a suicide attempt.
Daniella Levine Cava, mayor of Miami-Dade County, has chosen Daniels to "ensure continuity of leadership across our public safety teams."
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Cava has also appointed Chief of Corrections and Forensics JD Patterson Jr. as the Interim Chief of Public Safety.
Born and raised in Miami's Liberty City, Daniels was also the first Black woman to hold the position of Assistant Director of MDPD in 2016.
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No stranger to adversity, Daniels has said that "it is very tough being a woman in a male-dominated field."
Therefore, this achievement is no small feat.
"It's really, really hard because you know, as always, if a woman is strong, she's not seen as strong, she's seen as something negative," Daniels said, but she didn’t let this stop her from achieving her goals.
“My mindset has always been wanting to help and serve others,” she once commented, and, now holding one of the highest posts a woman has ever held in the Miami-Dade Police Department, she's still working towards this goal.
"The most important thing about the role that I'm currently in is letting little Black and brown girls see that they can be whatever they want to be and letting them know that where they start... doesn't dictate where they're going to end up at," Daniels said.
The Miami Northwestern High graduate (Class of '86), who strives to be "a solution for the community”, will now oversee the eighth-largest police force in the U.S.
