Broward Sheriff Tony fires his undersheriff; He suspects she may run against him in 2028

By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org

Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony sent a shockwave through his office Wednesday when word got out that the night before he’d suddenly fired his longtime second in command, Undersheriff Nichole Anderson.

Also fired were Anderson’s civilian aide and longtime BSO employee, Sharon Hayes, and her driver, Capt. Jamie Smith.

By midday Wednesday, Anderson’s photograph and biography had been removed from the Executive Command Staff page on BSO’s website. The new undersheriff is Steve Robson, a 29-year BSO veteran who previously held the title Chief Deputy and colonel in charge of BSO’s Department of Law Enforcement.

Anderson did not respond to a request for comment before deadline. But ranking police sources told Florida Bulldog that Tony was apparently angered when he heard that Anderson is planning to run against him when he’s up for re-election in 2028.

“She got a call from him. It lasted 30 seconds and it ended with him hanging up and saying ‘I’ll see you in 2028,” a police source said.

Anderson is a respected, 30-year BSO veteran. But like everyone who works at BSO, she was what’s known as an “at will” employee who the sheriff can fire for any reason or no reason at all.

Tony, Broward’s first black sheriff, appointed Anderson as BSO’s first African-American woman to serve as undersheriff in September 2019. Before that, she was the first black woman to head a district command when she was named to lead the South Broward district in 2011 by then Sheriff Al Lamberti.

Anderson joined the agency as a road patrol deputy in September 1996 after working two years as a state trooper with the Florida Highway Patrol. According to an online biography, she has an undergraduate degree in legal studies from Nova Southeastern University and a master’s degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix. She graduated from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, VA in 2018.