04-05-2009, 01:46 PM
BONITA SPRINGS — Capt. Kathryn Rairden’s welcoming party was, at first, anything but cordial.
In a town hall meeting in the Bonita Springs community of Village Walk, a handful of the dozens in attendance peppered her with complaints.
Deputies had been ticketing residents for speeding and running stop signs, they said. Meanwhile, the rowdy ATV riders across the road escaped citation.
“Why are they harassing Village Walk?” one man asked.
Rairden, 37, the amiable and approachable new Lee sheriff’s commander in south Lee County, replied that deputies wouldn’t make distinctions.
“My advice to you is a 35 mile per hour speed limit (means) 35 miles per hour,” she said. “A stop sign means come to a complete stop. If those laws are followed, not one Village Walk resident will receive a citation.”
The larger crowd applauded.
And so it was a happy reception for the deputy of 15 years, the Naples High graduate who rose from patrol deputy to lieutenant while stationed in Bonita Springs.
Rairden now is back to lead the full district, which stretches south from San Carlos Park to the Collier County line.
In her return, she’s quietly made history for the Sheriff’s Office as the agency’s first female district commander.
She’s just happy to be back in the community.
“This is my element,” Rairden beamed after the meeting. “This is my element right here.”
Bonita Springs city leaders are pleased, as well.
“When we heard there was going to be a switch (in commanders), we were like, ‘Oh no’” recalled Mayor Ben Nelson. “But when we heard it was her, we thought, ‘Great!’”
Rairden arrived in March from an assignment with little community interaction and even less applause -- Internal Affairs investigator.
For more than two years, she investigated complaints against deputies. Her findings, signed off on by agency higher-ups and the sheriff, often made news and occasionally caused controversy.
She wasn’t involved in the latest controversy, though.
In March, Scott placed his second-in-command, Chief Deputy Charles Ferrante, under internal investigation for alleged abuse of power. Other officers were demoted or investigated.
The moves preceded a broader agency restructuring, the one that promoted Rairden from lieutenant to captain and sent her to Delta District.
Scott, in a statement, said he was “extremely proud of and confident in Capt. Rairden’s ability ... this is why she was promoted. She represents our profession to the high standard it deserves.”
Rairden grew up in Naples, where her parents worked in insurance. She never planned to be a deputy, and after graduating from Naples High School, worked several years in retail.
With the encouragement of a friend from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, she put herself through law enforcement academy in 1993.
She graduated to work in a Bonita Springs far more rural than today’s city. The dog track was the big pull for adults, and Moon Lake for teenagers. Both garnered attention from deputies.
Parts of Bonita Beach Road were gravel. Deputies knew the convenience store clerks, and the arrival of Perkins was a big deal at the time.
“I don’t know that ‘Quality of Life’ had been coined yet,” Rairden said.
Seeing action meant picking the right shift to work.
“You lived for Friday through Monday, because Tuesday through Friday … nothing happened,” Rairden said. “It was quiet. I mean, you’d drive around for hours with just nothing. That doesn’t happen too much any more.”
Still, there was a range of activity, as evidenced in Rairden’s personnel file commendations.
In 1996, deputies helped rescue “Carlos” the manatee, after he stuck himself on a mud flat at Lover’s Key. They aided east Bonita Springs flood victims in 1995, raised money for needy children at Christmas, arrested drug dealers in Rosemary Park and closed “Los Pinos,” an area bar known for its drug activity.
Rairden married another Delta District officer, Lt. Michael Rairden, now retired, and with time worked her way up through the agency’s units.
She worked in Delta’s Criminal Investigations Division and spent two years between the Narcotics and Sex Crimes units.
When Bonita Springs became a city in 1999, Rairden was one of the two deputies placed on its payroll. She rose through the ranks, climbing to sergeant and eventually lieutenant. With each promotion, she oversaw more deputies.
Bonita Springs policing changed with the area’s growth. As communities like Bonita Bay and Pelican Landing Walk developed, residents expected peace, quiet and safety.
“Things that really make people crazy are the neighborhood things,” Nelson said. “‘My neighbor is too loud. My neighbor and I can’t get along’ … Community policing has really toned that down to a level where people know who to call. They get what I consider to be really good service.”
As the gated communities were established, migrant workers arrived to tend them, their golf courses and landscaping. They settled on the city’s margins and along Old 41 Road.
Residents along Old 41 Road complained of increased crime in the impoverished areas. Robberies and burglaries became more common, and women complained of harassment as they walked downtown. Community police established a “zero tolerance” policy for the area, cracking down on misdemeanors -- open containers, loitering -- that can spawn felonies.
Rairden said she’s familiar with such problems from her experience in other neighborhoods, such as Imperial Harbor, Pueblo Bonito and other typically rougher areas than the gated neighborhoods.
“Each community has had their complaints,” she said, but each will be treated equally.
It’s tempting to draw comparisons here -- Rairden, a female deputy, potentially an outsider navigating one of the world’s most macho professions.
But she brushes off such suggestions.
“I guess it just doesn’t come to play. Because, like I said, never in my career, I’ve never been made to feel like I didn’t get something or did get something because I was a woman,” she said.
Even so, the distinction of the promotion isn’t lost on her. But if she’s a role model, it’s for family, she said.
Rairden recalled her recent promotion ceremony, when the single gold bar on her lapel, a lieutenant’s designation, was replaced with a captain’s double bars.
“I sat back down and I thought to myself, ‘I’m a pretty good role model for my daughter,’” she said.
In the history of Lee County Sheriff’s Office, only three women have earned the rank of captain. Two received the designation as an honor upon retirement; the third is a civilian, the current director of the Communications Division.
Rairden need only look within the Bonita Springs substation to see that more will come.
Lt. Traci Sonier is her right-hand woman, the next-in-charge who oversees contract deputies, juvenile offender monitoring and other operations. Sonier worked with Rairden’s predecessor, the newly promoted Col. Gil Allen.
Rairden joked about her own promotion going to Sonier: “If it didn’t happen now, I might be in trouble. She might be the first female district commander.”
For now, the job is Rairden’s. As with most districts, crime numbers in Delta have dropped in the past year. Retail thefts continue to rise in the poor economy, and Delta, with its large malls, suffers more shoplifting than any other district.
Time will tell how well the new commander performs. But as she told the crowd at Village Walk, she will be frank with residents.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my career, it’s the more you try to please everyone, the more you end up offending everyone.”
In a town hall meeting in the Bonita Springs community of Village Walk, a handful of the dozens in attendance peppered her with complaints.
Deputies had been ticketing residents for speeding and running stop signs, they said. Meanwhile, the rowdy ATV riders across the road escaped citation.
“Why are they harassing Village Walk?” one man asked.
Rairden, 37, the amiable and approachable new Lee sheriff’s commander in south Lee County, replied that deputies wouldn’t make distinctions.
“My advice to you is a 35 mile per hour speed limit (means) 35 miles per hour,” she said. “A stop sign means come to a complete stop. If those laws are followed, not one Village Walk resident will receive a citation.”
The larger crowd applauded.
And so it was a happy reception for the deputy of 15 years, the Naples High graduate who rose from patrol deputy to lieutenant while stationed in Bonita Springs.
Rairden now is back to lead the full district, which stretches south from San Carlos Park to the Collier County line.
In her return, she’s quietly made history for the Sheriff’s Office as the agency’s first female district commander.
She’s just happy to be back in the community.
“This is my element,” Rairden beamed after the meeting. “This is my element right here.”
Bonita Springs city leaders are pleased, as well.
“When we heard there was going to be a switch (in commanders), we were like, ‘Oh no’” recalled Mayor Ben Nelson. “But when we heard it was her, we thought, ‘Great!’”
Rairden arrived in March from an assignment with little community interaction and even less applause -- Internal Affairs investigator.
For more than two years, she investigated complaints against deputies. Her findings, signed off on by agency higher-ups and the sheriff, often made news and occasionally caused controversy.
She wasn’t involved in the latest controversy, though.
In March, Scott placed his second-in-command, Chief Deputy Charles Ferrante, under internal investigation for alleged abuse of power. Other officers were demoted or investigated.
The moves preceded a broader agency restructuring, the one that promoted Rairden from lieutenant to captain and sent her to Delta District.
Scott, in a statement, said he was “extremely proud of and confident in Capt. Rairden’s ability ... this is why she was promoted. She represents our profession to the high standard it deserves.”
Rairden grew up in Naples, where her parents worked in insurance. She never planned to be a deputy, and after graduating from Naples High School, worked several years in retail.
With the encouragement of a friend from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, she put herself through law enforcement academy in 1993.
She graduated to work in a Bonita Springs far more rural than today’s city. The dog track was the big pull for adults, and Moon Lake for teenagers. Both garnered attention from deputies.
Parts of Bonita Beach Road were gravel. Deputies knew the convenience store clerks, and the arrival of Perkins was a big deal at the time.
“I don’t know that ‘Quality of Life’ had been coined yet,” Rairden said.
Seeing action meant picking the right shift to work.
“You lived for Friday through Monday, because Tuesday through Friday … nothing happened,” Rairden said. “It was quiet. I mean, you’d drive around for hours with just nothing. That doesn’t happen too much any more.”
Still, there was a range of activity, as evidenced in Rairden’s personnel file commendations.
In 1996, deputies helped rescue “Carlos” the manatee, after he stuck himself on a mud flat at Lover’s Key. They aided east Bonita Springs flood victims in 1995, raised money for needy children at Christmas, arrested drug dealers in Rosemary Park and closed “Los Pinos,” an area bar known for its drug activity.
Rairden married another Delta District officer, Lt. Michael Rairden, now retired, and with time worked her way up through the agency’s units.
She worked in Delta’s Criminal Investigations Division and spent two years between the Narcotics and Sex Crimes units.
When Bonita Springs became a city in 1999, Rairden was one of the two deputies placed on its payroll. She rose through the ranks, climbing to sergeant and eventually lieutenant. With each promotion, she oversaw more deputies.
Bonita Springs policing changed with the area’s growth. As communities like Bonita Bay and Pelican Landing Walk developed, residents expected peace, quiet and safety.
“Things that really make people crazy are the neighborhood things,” Nelson said. “‘My neighbor is too loud. My neighbor and I can’t get along’ … Community policing has really toned that down to a level where people know who to call. They get what I consider to be really good service.”
As the gated communities were established, migrant workers arrived to tend them, their golf courses and landscaping. They settled on the city’s margins and along Old 41 Road.
Residents along Old 41 Road complained of increased crime in the impoverished areas. Robberies and burglaries became more common, and women complained of harassment as they walked downtown. Community police established a “zero tolerance” policy for the area, cracking down on misdemeanors -- open containers, loitering -- that can spawn felonies.
Rairden said she’s familiar with such problems from her experience in other neighborhoods, such as Imperial Harbor, Pueblo Bonito and other typically rougher areas than the gated neighborhoods.
“Each community has had their complaints,” she said, but each will be treated equally.
It’s tempting to draw comparisons here -- Rairden, a female deputy, potentially an outsider navigating one of the world’s most macho professions.
But she brushes off such suggestions.
“I guess it just doesn’t come to play. Because, like I said, never in my career, I’ve never been made to feel like I didn’t get something or did get something because I was a woman,” she said.
Even so, the distinction of the promotion isn’t lost on her. But if she’s a role model, it’s for family, she said.
Rairden recalled her recent promotion ceremony, when the single gold bar on her lapel, a lieutenant’s designation, was replaced with a captain’s double bars.
“I sat back down and I thought to myself, ‘I’m a pretty good role model for my daughter,’” she said.
In the history of Lee County Sheriff’s Office, only three women have earned the rank of captain. Two received the designation as an honor upon retirement; the third is a civilian, the current director of the Communications Division.
Rairden need only look within the Bonita Springs substation to see that more will come.
Lt. Traci Sonier is her right-hand woman, the next-in-charge who oversees contract deputies, juvenile offender monitoring and other operations. Sonier worked with Rairden’s predecessor, the newly promoted Col. Gil Allen.
Rairden joked about her own promotion going to Sonier: “If it didn’t happen now, I might be in trouble. She might be the first female district commander.”
For now, the job is Rairden’s. As with most districts, crime numbers in Delta have dropped in the past year. Retail thefts continue to rise in the poor economy, and Delta, with its large malls, suffers more shoplifting than any other district.
Time will tell how well the new commander performs. But as she told the crowd at Village Walk, she will be frank with residents.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my career, it’s the more you try to please everyone, the more you end up offending everyone.”