Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office $132,000 cowboy hat order draws mixed reactions: "This is all part of the rebranding"

The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office has ordered 1,000 cowboy hats for deputies at a total cost of $132,000, drawing mixed reactions from voters and prompting officials to defend the purchase.

The hats cost $132 each. The sheriff's office says they are optional and will be paid for from its existing uniform budget.

A social media video of deputies putting on a cowboy hat and passing it along drew attention to the new uniform option. Sheriff Rosie Cordero Stutz appears at the end.

"We've always worn a badge. Now we're adding a sheriff style to it," Cordero Stutz says in the video.

Some residents questioned the spending.

"My paycheck, our taxes, and as a 20-plus-year resident, I'm very disappointed," said Eliseo Abreus, a Miami-Dade voter.

Voter Beatriz Morejon Paniaga, speaking in Spanish, acknowledged the cost but said she did not think the hats were a bad idea if they help protect deputies.

Stedman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, supports the purchase and called it part of the agency's rebranding.

"This is all part of the rebranding," Stahl said.

He also pointed to the practical benefits of a wider brim for deputies who work outdoors, particularly those directing traffic in the heat. Comparing the cowboy hat with a baseball cap, he said the hat gives more coverage.

"Your ears are going to burn up, your neck will get burned up," he said of wearing a baseball cap in the sun. "This gives you a lot more protection."

Stahl also said Cordero Stutz has saved the county money through other uniform decisions. At a news conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis, Cordero Stutz said that keeping the agency's existing brown uniforms, rather than switching to green, avoided about $4.8 million in costs. She said the hats fall within the uniform funds deputies receive each year.

In a statement to CBS News Miami, the sheriff's office repeated that the purchase does not require a new budget allocation.

"The cowboy hat is an optional addition to our deputies' authorized uniforms, not a new budget item," the statement reads. "It is purchased using funds already allocated in our existing uniform budget."

The agency said deputies may also choose to wear no hat.