When Monroe County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant Nancy Alvarez first hit the Overseas Highway as a road patrol deputy, she was, in her own words, “horrible” at it.
Twice.
Forty years later, she must have done more than a few things right. And last month, Alvarez became the latest recipient of the Florida Sheriffs Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, reserved for those with more than four decades of law enforcement service in the Sunshine State.
Speaking with the Weekly, though, she describes her path to success and longevity as anything but straight, doubting herself in her early days as a 911 dispatcher. Leaving behind what she called “three menial jobs” to answer the phones for better pay – $12,900 a year at the time – she was quickly baptized into the world of law enforcement and criminal activity. It was an unfamiliar side of life for the self-described “goody two-shoes.”
“I was terrible when I started,” she laughed. “I tell my supervisor back then that I don’t know how I made it, and I admit that. … It was a culture shock, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world, because I was kind of naive.”
Dispatching in the 1980s looked nothing like it does today. Working out of the Marathon substation, Alvarez handled emergency calls for law enforcement, fire rescue and EMS while also processing inmates in the adjoining jail, assisting walk-in visitors and manually documenting every call before computerized dispatch systems existed.
And when she wasn’t at a desk, she was riding along as a reserve deputy, a program that allowed her to carry firearms and work in high-liability situations under the supervision of a sworn deputy.
Six years later, she attended the law enforcement academy, attending courses in the evening before putting in midnight shifts on the phones. Two years later, she was on the roads.
“And I was horrible, again,” she laughed. “I don’t know if I would have passed had I not known the area because I grew up there. … I tell recruits now that the academy doesn’t teach you how to be a cop, it teaches you how to pass a police test.”
Sitting behind the wheel — and making split-second decisions herself — was a far cry from following another deputy’s lead as a reserve. It was a transition she struggled to make.
“I just needed that kick in the butt,” she said. “But (my supervisors) knew me, and they knew I’d apply myself. I just had to fine-tune the more technical stuff that was not in my wheelhouse.”
Over time, the uncertainty disappeared, and the deputy who once doubted her traffic stops became the one responsible for teaching new deputies how to make them. Rather than turning recruits over to face their first stop on a real vehicle, she’d simulate the experience with role players.
She gave every recruit the same advice: “Take one thing from each training officer and put it in your toolbox, and create your own toolbox when you’re on your own.”
After numerous promotions and service in road patrol, special operations and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program, she landed in intelligence, where she discovered the investigative work she still enjoys today. Her current role centers on identifying patterns, sharing information and connecting agencies that otherwise might not communicate.
“I like connecting the dots and putting the puzzle together,” Alvarez said. “I don’t care who puts the handcuffs on them as long as they go to jail.”
Among the dozens of investigations she’s worked, one still sticks with her: executing a search warrant for a man who’d stolen a friend’s identity to make hundreds of thousands in purchases, from a house to boats and even a Christopher Lassen original painting.
“When we did the search, he had multiple 100-dollar bill wrappers that you get from a bank,” she said. “To this day I still don’t know what he did. … But I still have the painting hanging in my office as evidence. I still keep the file because one day I want to track him down and ask him to tell me before I retire.”
Her philosophy on interagency communication paid extra dividends in 2017, when organized crews racked up $1 million in GPS thefts from boats in marinas and storage facilities. Alvarez was instrumental in growing a cooperative marine task force, which now meets quarterly and includes more than 2,000 members among law enforcement agencies, rental car and insurance companies and more.
The effort eventually expanded into the South Florida Marina & Boat Watch Group on Facebook, a neighbors-helping-neighbors network with more than 16,800 members that has, at times, alerted authorities quickly enough to interrupt burglaries in progress.
“The hardest part is time, but I make the time because it pays off,” she said. “One time, North Miami Beach had a search warrant for GPS thefts. They called with a heads up, and that night we got hit in Venetian Shores, so I called the lieutenant back and asked for their suspect car. Sure enough, their target was ours – and they recovered our GPSes for us.”
The experience has also shaped the crime prevention advice she now gives residents – and it still comes back to the basics: lock vehicles, never leave key fobs or firearms inside, and remain skeptical of financial scams.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it is,” she said. “Do not send any money via Zelle, wire transfer or Cash App.”
Asked who most influenced her career, Alvarez immediately pointed to Sheriff Rick Ramsay, her own sergeant when she first went out on road patrol, who encouraged deputies to continually build their training and leadership credentials.
She also credited former FDLE supervisor Carol Frederick for helping shape her leadership style.
And while the Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes four decades of service, Alvarez said she sees it less as the finish line than a reminder of how far she’s come from the dispatcher and rookie deputy who once questioned whether she belonged.
Photos contributed
“I still love my job,” she said. “Hopefully not another 40 years, but a few more anyway.”
