A mayoral campaign ad includes Miami's police chief. The department wants it dropped
Miami police are asking Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Esteban “Steve” Bovo Jr. to take down a TV ad that includes an image of the county commissioner standing with the city’s police chief.
Deputy Chief Ronald Papier said the department first notified the Bovo campaign verbally earlier this week and that on Friday it forwarded an email explaining how using their likeness to insinuate supporting a political candidate was against department policy.
As senior police administrators “for a major American city, we are not only public officials, but also, public figures. Therefore, it is imperative that we remain both explicitly and implicitly impartial during all elections for public office,” the department said in an email sent to Bovo by Assistant Chief Armando Aguilar Jr.
“We will review the letter,” Bovo said Friday afternoon.
The video in question, which can be found on YouTube, is an endorsement by Miami’s Police Benevolent Association, the county’s police union. In it, PBA President Steadman Stahl says the union fears Bovo’s challenger, Daniella Levine Cava, would cut resources for police. Levine Cava has denied this, pointing to past votes for budgets increasing the county police budget.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article246662088.html#storylink=cpy
