Growing up in South Florida, law enforcement was not part of Stephanie Daniels' career plans.
"I did not want to become a police officer," the newly minted police director said, laughing. "It just happened. When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a nurse."
Instead, the Miami Northwestern alumna began her career working for the City of Miami as a dispatcher, but rather than sending police to the scene of a crime, she wanted to be there herself.
"I wanted to go on the road," she remembered. "So I switched it up."
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Daniels told NBC6 when she enrolled in the police academy at what is now Miami Dade College she said she was "naïve" and did not know what to expect.
When Daniels got her start on patrol, her husband was already a corrections officer for the county and they already had three children.
Daniels' mother always believed she would be in charge of the police department someday.
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Daniels would spend the next 31 years rising through the ranks of the Miami-Dade Police Department, all the way to the top.
"I love it," she said. "I wanted to start with MDPD and I want to end with MDPD."
Daniels is now the first woman, and first Black woman to take charge of Miami-Dade Police, leading 3,100 sworn officers, the largest police force in the southeastern United States.
Her adult sons also work in law enforcement, and she treasures time with her four-year-old grandson.
Over the last three decades, Daniels has spent time as a uniform patrol officer, a community police officer, working in internal affairs, and then on to administration. She was most recently assistant chief under former Police Director Freddy Ramirez.
In the wake of Ramirez trying to take his own life last July, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava appointed Daniels to take over the force - something else that was not in Daniels' plans.
"I never wanted to be the director. I never went out or aspired to be the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department. So I know I'm here for a purpose and a reason. I know this is all God's doing."
Her top goals now are the "health and welfare of our officers, our civilian staff, as well as making sure the community is safe, that's always going to be a priority always."
She acknowledged the Ramirez incident has put a bigger spotlight on mental health wellness for officers.
"It's always been a priority, but we're really focusing on it to make sure that they realize that the resources are there, and not only there, making sure that they know that it's there and we're pushing them to the resources," Daniels said.
But for all her historymaking, Daniels' leadership has an expiration date. By state law, the county must soon replace her director position with that of an elected sheriff.
So will she consider running?
"I'm not interested in being the sheriff," she explained. "I'm humbled by the opportunity that I have currently right now to lead this department. I'm excited for it. And, I'm gonna do my best to continue on the path... until the sheriff comes in."
