- April 26, 2024
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For Flagler County Sheriff Office Master Detective Crista Rainey, the path to law enforcement success was not a straight one.
Rainey moved to Palm Coast from New Jersey in 2012 specifically to become a law enforcement officer, since New Jersey had an age limit for joining. She joined the Flagler Beach Police Department first at 41, and then transferred to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office in 2015.
“I've always felt that I'm living my dream. It’s been a very, very good year for me. I’m very, very happy.” — FCSO Master Detective Crista Rainey
Now, having turned 50 in December, Rainey has begun the new leg of her law enforcement career as a detective, with 10 years of experience and several awards under belt.
“I've always felt that I'm living my dream,” Rainey said. “It’s been a very, very good year for me. I’m very, very happy.”
Being a cop was always her dream, Rainey said. Her family has photos and stories of her in a kid’s cop costume, "arresting" her family, she said. But she ended up taking a circuitous route — getting a degree in exercise physiology, working a stint in a Cheesecake Factory.
But it wasn’t until she was dating an FBI agent, she said, that she remembered her dream of going into law enforcement and started down that path. But New Jersey has an age limit of 36 for academy graduates — so instead, Rainey followed her passion to Palm Coast.
And her passion has translated into her work: Rainey has earned the recognition of her peers and several awards for her service.
Most prominently, in 2022, she was named the Florida Sheriff’s Association’s Law Enforcement Officer of the Year after her two successful rescues of a teenager attempting to jump from an overpass in 2021 and for the successful capture of a fugitive suspected of murder in 2021.
Rainey said she’s never had a situation on the same level of rescuing the teenage girl on the overpass. The first rescue, she said, took an hour and a half from start to finish; the whole time, she was just focused on keeping the girl from jumping.
“Immediately after, was a huge decompression moment for all of us,” she said.
Rainey said that even months after the fact, the recognition still blows her mind.
“People I work with, they’re like, ‘deputy of the universe,’’ she said. “They’re always making jokes about it … [but] I go back and rethink and it’s still not real to me. It really isn’t.”
The recognition is a nice balance, Rainey said, to the negative said of law enforcement.
“I think that there's a lot of people who do stuff like this, you know,” Rainey said. “But the things that I've done, I don't consider myself special. But again, it's still just nice to be recognized.”
Deputy Bryan Carter would disagree that Rainey, his first partner on the force, isn’t special. Rainey is selfless, Carter said.
“Crista — she’s a go getter,” Carter said. “That girl won’t say no to anything.”
Carter joined FCSO five years ago, and Rainey was his zone partner from the start. He said she mentored him and guided him on calls, telling him when in doubt, to abide by policy.
“She got me on the right track right out the gate,” he said.
The two of them routinely critiqued calls with each other after the fact, always looking to improve themselves. Carter said they wouldn't pull any punches, both for their own safety and their residents’.
“She never wants to take the cheap way out,” Carter said. “She taught me there’s no breaks in law enforcement.”
Carter said Rainey helped mold him into the deputy he is today. And even now, as they go their separate ways at FCSO, he said they’re still close.
“She never wants to take the cheap way out. She taught me there’s no breaks in law enforcement.” — FCSO Deputy Bryan Carter
“She’s a dear friend of mine,” he said. “She’ll always be my friend.”
And it isn’t just her peers whose recognize her skills. Sheriff Rick Staly said they are all proud of Rainey.
“She is a dedicated and committed law enforcement officer,” Staly said. “She is a great representative of the Sheriff's Office and the many men and women that serve our community."
Now, at 50 when most people are considering winding down, Rainey is settling into her new position as a detective.
“Detective is something I’ve always wanted to do,” she said. “I needed the change.”
Even at the start of her dream career 10 years ago, Rainey said her age has never been a problem for her, or even a consideration.
“I never think about it,” she said. “I was more concerned about being a female in the field.”
And even that hasn’t been an issue over the years, she said. Instead, Rainey said the things that stick out to her are the recovery stories — people who she has helped on their worst day, she said, that are clean or healthy or saved.
“The things I did this year mean a lot to me,” she said. “But that kind of stuff — when you hear good stories … that’s why we do this. We do this to help people.”
