Castor is focused, confident as she leads during crisis

The anguish is plain to see on every law enforcement officer's face, but nowhere is it more apparent than on Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor.

In the three days since Tampa police Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab were shot to death during a routine traffic stop, Castor repeatedly has stepped to a podium at televised news conferences to praise the slain officers, her department and the community, and to offer updates on the manhunt for suspect Dontae Morris.

She conveys the image of a commander in charge: focused, intense and confident. Appointed police chief less than a year ago, this is the first major crisis of her administration.

From neighborhood crime watch leaders to Castor's law enforcement peers, the impression is that she is up to the task.

"People are looking for some leadership," said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee. "They are looking for people to help them get by this thing and get through it."

Castor is holding up well, said Gee, whose deputies are helping Tampa police officers with the investigation.

Gee understands the pressures.

Three years ago sheriff's Sgt. Ron Harrison was gunned down at a Brandon intersection. He was returning to a traffic checkpoint when he was shot by Michael Allen Phillips. Phillips, 24, was tracked to his home where a sheriff's sharpshooter killed him during a brief gun battle.

"Everybody's just got a purposeful mission now," Gee said. "There's a lot of good coming out of everybody right now."

Mayor Pam Iorio has spent hours with Castor at the investigations command center and was with the chief at 3:30 a.m. at Tampa General Hospital on Tuesday, the day of the shooting. "I've seen how she dealt with family; her great straightforward and compassionate way of dealing with them," Iorio said. "She's a good person. She's working hard."

Seminole Heights' resident Christie Hess is a crime watch coordinator who has worked with Castor for years. Hess said she values Castor's "mince no words" style.

"She is a no-nonsense type of leader, very open," Hess said. "She gives you an answer. You may not like the answer but she'll give you one."

Castor was a familiar presence in neighborhoods as she moved up the ranks from beat officer to major to assistant chief under former Police Chief Steve Hogue. She attended countless neighborhood meetings, building a reputation for addressing residents' concerns with calm, measured responses.

Neighborhoods were on her agenda as soon as she was sworn in as police chief. She immediately began a round of appearances at neighborhood associations and crime watch groups.

She always has been approachable, Hess said.

Castor is a Tampa native and a graduate of Chamberlain High School. Her basketball and volleyball skills earned her a place in the University of Tampa's Athletic Hall of Fame.

She was appointed as Tampa's first woman police chief in September, more than 25 years after she began her career, and one month after Cpl. Mike Roberts was shot to death by a homeless man on Nebraska Avenue.

Castor has worked in narcotics, street anti-crime, and sex crimes and child abuse units.

Hogue singled out Castor as one of the main forces behind the city's 46-percent drop in crime from 2003 to 2008. Last year she was named Law Enforcement Executive of the Year by the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives.

Hess said Castor cares deeply about Tampa and its residents.

In the 1990s Seminole Heights' residents organized nightly volunteer crime watch patrols to drive prostitutes from Nebraska Avenue. Patrol members often became targets for rock throwing and vandalism to their vehicles.

Hess said Castor understood what the neighborhoods were up against. "She used the law to the fullest to protect us," Hess said.

But Castor also knew what citizen patrols could and could not do, and honored individual rights. "She always let us know where the lines were," Hess said. "That's what we appreciated in her - honesty, integrity and a willingness to see things for what they are."