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PROTECT & SERVE COUNTY SHERIFF >> SADIE DARNELL
Darnell won her first campaign during the September 2006 primary against three opponents. She went on to win the General Election in November to become the Alachua County Sheriff.
ALACHUA COUNTY’S FIRST ELECTED FEMALE SHERIFF
Sheriff Sadie Darnell W R I T T E N B Y H AY L I Z U CCO L A
In 1976, law enforcement in Gainesville and most of America was considered a man’s profession. A scrappy environment filled with breaking up fights, carrying guns and protecting citizens by taking down “bad guys” took strength and tenacity and therefore was presumably no place for a lady. Despite the prejudice of the era, no amount of judgmental glares, harassment or the occasional death threat would stop Sadie Darnell from achieving her dream of becoming a Gainesville police officer and later Alachua County’s first elected female sheriff. Darnell didn’t have a lifelong ambition of being on the police force. She didn’t grow up hearing stories from family members in a similar profession and instantly know that’s what she wanted 140 |
OUR TOWN MAGAZINE
MARCH/APRIL 2018
to be; no, that goal came later in life. After she graduated from the University of Florida with her bachelor’s in psychology, she struggled to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. “When I walked out on the day of the last class I said ‘what am I gonna do now?’ and I really had no idea,” she said. Darnell became a secretary with the Gainesville Police Department, but working at a desk every day didn’t fulfill her desire of helping people in the community. Sitting at her kitchen table with her mom, Lottie, and her father, Jim, Darnell told her parents that she wanted to be a police officer. A frozen, heart-stopping expression washed over their faces, but they were ultimately supportive of her decision – wanting Darnell and her twin sister, Norma, to do whatever made them happy. Wanting to become an officer was one thing, but for a woman in the late ’70s, just being accepted into the police academy was a challenge all on its own. “I sent a form through to be sponsored at the police academy