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Secret Service Prepares New Hillsborough Jail Chief

Tribune file photo (2007)

As the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office training division commander, Maj. Jim Previtera demostrates the Taser X26. Previtera has been promoted to colonel and head of detention services.

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By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune
and ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 30, 2008

Updated: 09/30/2008 01:21 pm

TAMPA - James Previtera says the unwritten lessons he learned protecting Vice President Dick Cheney will help him manage Hillsborough County's jail system.

Previtera, former Secret Service agent, was promoted today to the rank of colonel and will replace recently retired Col. David Parrish as commander of the detention department of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

"I learned from protecting Cheney that you really have to prepare yourself," Previtera says. "You see him read and read and read and digest every document and pour through portfolios. People are successful for a reason. Drive and determination."

Previtera, who says he hunted with Cheney on the Texas ranch where Cheney accidentally shot a hunting partner in 2006, says his drive and determination is focused on improving "one of the best jail systems in the country."

Recent hearings into the county's jail system, sparked by a deputy's dumping of a man in a wheelchair and video of the incident broadcast worldwide, "were refreshing," he says.

"I really liked the process," he says. "I think it is important for every organization to once in a while have a fresh set of eyes on it. This is one of the best jail systems in the country, but there is room for improvement."

Training will be key, he says.

"We can train our people better," he says. "We can train our managers better and address the stress inherent with the job."

The first step, he says, will be training middle managers to recognize when deputies are becoming stressed.

"I want them to learn the subtle indicators that show there could be a problem," he says, pointing out that fatigue and out-of-character behavior might be signs of brewing trouble.

Previtera joined the sheriff's office in 2005 as the head of the training division, where he supervised all training and the recruitment and screening bureau. Before that, he was a Secret Service agent in the vice presidential protection division. He also was part of the training staff at the Secret Service training center in Beltsville, Md., and an agent in the Tampa office.

Previtera began his law enforcement career in 1986 as a deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. He was a corporal in the Special Operations division when he left for the Secret Service in 1997.

Previtera also has served as an instructor for the Southeastern Public Safety Institute and the Florida Sheriffs Association.

He has a bachelor's degree in criminology from Saint Leo University and is a graduate of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the U.S. Secret Service James J. Rowley Training Center and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Leadership Development Programs.

In August, Previtera presented a jail staff training plan to the independent commission formed by Sheriff David Gee in response to the controversy over the wheelchair-dumping incident.

The sheriff's office worked with the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities at the University of South Florida and the Advocacy Center for Persons With Disabilities, a state nonprofit organization, to assess training needs and develop the curriculum, Previtera said

The first phase of the plan was eight hours of training for detention cadets on how to handle disabled inmates, Previtera said. Patrol cadets already receive training on dealing with disabled people, he said.

After that, all detention deputies will receive four hours of in-service training in the fall on the same subject, he said.

Any interested detention deputies also will be allowed to take 40 hours of advanced crisis-intervention training geared toward communicating with the mentally ill, Previtera said. This training already is available to patrol personnel, he said.

In March, Previtera said he was disgusted when he watched the wheelchair incident, but he couldn't point to a single failure in training. He said the sheriff's office has made drastic improvements in recent years in training. He also said the sheriff's office had an ongoing responsibility to review and make improvements in training.

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