Two commanders: Capt. Ed Tamayo, left, the current commander of Bravo District at the Lee County Sheriff’s substation, is retiring. At right is Capt. Ron Curtis who has been named to succeed him. Photos by Mel Toadvine

Capt. Ed Tamayo, commander twice of the Bravo District substation in Lehigh Acres, is retiring and says he and his wife are going to spend some time traveling, then return and become volunteers to areas in the country that have been stricken by disaster.

“That is something that we both feel that we want to do,” Tamayo said .

He is being replaced by Capt. Ron Curtis who is coming from the Sheriff’s Economic Crimes Robbery and Auto Theft Division out of Cape Coral.

Curtis has been in Lehigh now for a few weeks being shown the ropes by Tamayo as he is gearing down for his last day of work at the end of this month.

“Capt. Curtis has been part of the decision making process here in Lehigh now. He is a good man and I am sure the people of Lehigh will come to learn to like and respect his leadership,” Tamayo said.

Capt. Ed Tamayo

One of his last acts as commander here, he said has tentative plans to attend the last Chamber of Commerce luncheon on May 31, following the Memorial Day Weekend. That is the day of his retirement.

Tamayo has always for the most part introduced each month’s Deputy of the Month who is honored by the Chamber for his outstanding work in Lehigh. More than likely, he will also introduce Capt. Curtis to the business community, who are members of the Chamber.

Tamayo, who lives in Lehigh has known Capt. Curtis for many years as they served together in different capacities.

And Tamayo, who has been a popular commander in Lehigh, reiterated his love for the community.

“I worked here in Lehigh years ago as in different capacities. He has been an eye witness to seeing the population of Lehigh grow from a few thousand people to what the U.S. Census Bureau says now is above 87,000 people. He remembers a time when there was little crime with only one deputy serving Lehigh to years later when the crime rate in Lehigh was at an all-time high.

Capt. Ron Curtis

He first became the District’s captain here between 2005 and 2009 and then was transferred to Internal Affairs where he served for 10 months

There were reports of residents and business leaders asking Sheriff Mike Scott to bring him back to Lehigh as its commander for the second time.

The Sheriff listened and reassigned Tamayo back to Lehigh’s Bravo Station, known before as the East Zone. That occurred in January of 2010 and the captain has been in command ever since. He is respected by the men and women that serve under him and is widely respected by the community.

He was responsible through the support of the sheriff over the past few years to a real crackdown on crime in Lehigh. Once, for two or three days, the Sheriff sent a contingent from other areas of the county to do a sweep through Lehigh, providing many arrests and shutting down several marijuana grow houses.

The crime rate dropped drastically and even today, the crime rate in Lehigh continues to be among the lowest in the county.

Capt. Curtis and Lt. Loethen. Capt. Ron Curtis, left, and Lt. James Loethen, right, talk outside the substation on Homestead Rd. Loethen is second in command under Capt. Curtis who officially takes over on June 1. Loethen has become active in Lehigh and was honored two weeks ago by the Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce.

Gone are the days when people in Cape Coral could call Lehigh the crime capital of the county. Today, according to daily police reports, Lehigh has less crime than any of the other areas in the county, much of that credit is given to Tamayo and his men and women officers in Lehigh.

Tamayo is married and his and his wife have four children, two teenagers, two grown and three grandchildren.

Tamayo has watched the force of law enforcement grow from 40 or so to today’s law enforcement of 61 certified officers with five civilian employees.

He is always quick to give credit for crime rates dropping to the men and woman in Lehigh who cover the vast area. Tamayo mentioned, too, how the district was made smaller so deputies do not have to cover such a vast area as they did a few years ago when their area went to East Fort Myers all to the Southwest International Airport, including Daniels Parkway.

But for today, Tamayo is looking forward to the purchase of an RV and laughed and said he hoped the gas prices drop as that will be a critical factor for when they decide to travel.

“But we are very serious about doing volunteer work, going into areas where disaster has struck. Over the years Tamayo has been an active member of Gunnery Road Baptist Church.

And in the beginning he liked to chide some who couldn’t quite get his named spelled correctly. He would say, “it’s not like tomato, only it’s T-a-m-a-y-o.”

The captain lost his mother just a few weeks ago and said she lived in Lehigh and was quite independent and he had recently asked her to move in with his wife and their family.

He remembers that Lehigh was served by one deputy back in 1984, he and his wife chose to move to Lehigh because of its safer and smaller population, he said.

Tamayo said the influx to Lehigh really began following the devastation left by Hurricane Andrew.

“A lot of people came this way and that is when I saw he influx of people moving into our community.

For several years both Tamayo and Curtis worked together in Major crimes including narcotics and staff inspection, which was a plan to make sure all units were working properly.

Tamayo said he first decided he was interested in police work in 1974 when he saw what was happening on Florida’s east coast.

“I saw the tension building, a lot of it racial. I saw the problems with teens in school. I like order so we decided to come to this area,” he said. “We wanted to get away from the disruption that we saw.“

Although there still is crime in Lehigh, Tamayo said it is related to unoccupied homes being broken into. The occurrence of foreclosures here in Lehigh left many homes without occupants and thieves began breaking into them and stealing everything of value, including air condition equipment and all tings copper.

The new captain will take over officially on June 1. While here for the past two to three weeks, Tamayo has introduced him to many of the community’s “doers and shakers.“

“He is a good man., Ed was one of my mentors,” said Capt. Curtis.

He decided to become a law enforcement officer when he was 17 and working part-time in a jail as a correctional officer. He is married and grown children. His 23-year-old daughter works at Headquarters in the Sheriff’s Office. His middle daughter, a 21-year-old is warrants clerk and plans to go to the Corrections Academy in Fort Myers. Her goal is to become a deputy sheriff.

And his youngest, a son, 19, has graduated from the Corrections Academy and plans to become a game and fish officer and a law enforcement officer.

Curtis is a 28-year law enforcement veteran who was a captain with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the commander of the Economic Crimes, Robbery, Auto Theft Division which consisted of three squads of detectives.

Prior to the Economic Crimes Division, Curtis was the commander of the Professional Standards Division which consisted of Internal Affairs, Accreditation, and Human Performance Management.

Prior to Professional Standards, Curtis was the commander of the Major Crimes Division which consisted of homicide, robbery, auto theft, missing persons, child abuse, sexual predator and offender unit, sex crimes, violent crimes and cold case homicide investigations.

Curtis has approximately 2,000 hours of specialized law enforcement training in numerous diversified topics. He holds a doctor of education degree (Ed.D.) in Organizational Leadership with a specialization in Conflict Resolution from Nova Southeastern University, a master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) with a concentration in Justice Administration from Florida Gulf Coast University, a bachelor’s degree (BS) in Management from Hodges University, and an associate’s degree (AS) in Criminal Justice from Edison College.

In addition to his full-time duties at the Sheriff’s Office, Curtis has worked an adjunct professor of Criminal Justice and as an adjunct professor of Leadership and Management and Public Administration at Florida Gulf Coast University and Barry University. Curtis is married with three children and lives in Cape Coral.

Curtis says he plans to take a few months to get to know everyone and the community before he would make any changes. He’s 46 and Tamayo calls him an “academic.“

“He has a great mind to analyze things. He will do well here in Lehigh.“

He helped to create the Community Policing Program and worked for a while in Lehigh. He left here and returned to the East District of Dunbar and Tice around January of 1993 and in September 1994, he returned to work in Lehigh as a deceive.

Tamayo said Leigh has more detective working here than in any other zone of Lee County.

Tamayo said there are seven deputies working in Lehigh for “selective enforcement.“

That means, he says that they are freed up for surveillance with a target on repeat offenders. They often are able to become in arrests in crimes that are in progress.

“We get the bad guys here in Lehigh,” Tamayo said. He spoke of the short time that it take his officers to make arrests and solve crime. “it’s simply amazing,” Tamayo said.

In the meantime, Capt. Curtis is becoming familiar again with the community he has worked in before.

It appears that there is going to be a smooth transfer of power at the top and Curtis says he plans to make himself available to any group or organization where he would be glad to speak about the operations of the department.

For those who would like to meet him, be sure to attend the Chamber meeting on the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Tamayo plans to introduce him officially to the community and then begin shopping for a RV and begin another chapter in his life with much of it still in public service as a volunteer to help those in desperate situation in areas struck by storms and other disasters.

Lt. James Loethen, who himself has become an active participant in affairs in Lehigh, continues to be second in command.

Curtis said he looks forward in working with Loethen and sees him as a great help in his work in Lehigh because of his knowledge of the community and the department.