Don Hunter has thirty-five (35) years of law enforcement experience beginning his law enforcement career in 1979 serving with the Collier County Sheriff's Office (Naples, Florida) as a deputy sheriff. Don was promoted to the position of Deputy Chief of Administration and Special Operations (rank of Major) in 1981 assuming responsibilities for sheriff's operations in planning, research, budgets, training, information technology, emergency communications, narcotics enforcement and special weapons and tactics (SWAT).
As commander of all tactical operations and a tactical team member for the sheriff's office Don led nationally recognized narcotics task force operations in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Caribbean basin Group 6 in Miami, Florida. Don also led successful SWAT rescue, high risk subject apprehensions, search warrant execution missions and joint training operations with U.S. military elements (“Red Team” maneuvers).
Don campaigned for Sheriff of Collier County, in 1988, upon the retirement of the then Sheriff. Don won primary and general elections that year and in the years 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 serving as the county's Sheriff for twenty (20) years before retiring as sheriff in January 2009.
As sheriff, Don led an agency populated by approximately one thousand four hundred (1,400) members in the second largest (geographical) and one of the most affluent county jurisdictions in the state of Florida with a budget of more than $153 million.
Don was responsible as sheriff for creating and executing operational strategies and tactics that led to the lowest ever recorded crime rates in the county's history.
While serving as sheriff, Hunter was responsible for the design and construction of a state-of-the-art jail system and the design and construction of a state-of-the-art emergency operations and communications center.
Hunter established formal working agreements with the U.S. Marshal's Service and Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Custom's Enforcement (Criminal Alien Task Force) for the identification and removal of illegally present foreign persons who were determined to be recurring law violators and who were judged to be continuing threats to Collier County (formally known as a Title 8, 287(g) program in the federal Immigration and Naturalization Act).
Don received numerous gubernatorial and state appointments to state boards and task forces, including appointments to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (Tampa, Florida), Florida Domestic Security Oversight Council (as an operations member and subsequently as its Intelligence Chairman; and Co-Chair of the Southwest Florida Regional Domestic Security Task Force), Florida Criminal and Juvenile Justice Information System Council, Florida Parole Commission Nomination Board and most recently to the Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises, Inc. Board of Directors (PRIDE), affiliated with the Florida Department of Corrections.
While serving as Collier County Sheriff Don led the agency to national and state law enforcement and corrections accreditation. Hunter received appointments to both the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), as the National Sheriffs’ Association representative, and appointment by the state of Florida as a Commissioner and Chairman for the Florida Commission on Accreditation (FCA).
Don received recurring appointments by the National Sheriffs’ Association to the Association's Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Committee.
Don is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy (179th Session), Florida Criminal Justice Executive Institute (also serving as both an instructor and member of the board of directors for the institute), Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Business Executive studies program and the Florida State University (earning both bachelor and master's degrees in Criminology and Criminal Justice Planning).
After retiring as sheriff in January 2009, Don served two (2) years as a consultant to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and simultaneously as a law enforcement consultant with Technology Investors, Inc. a child protection software development corporation.
More recently Don served three (3) years as Chief of Police for Marco Island, Florida before creating the Florida consulting corporation, Law Enforcement Strategies Group, LLC, specializing in personal, community and infrastructure security threat assessment and mitigation as well as research and analysis of law enforcement and domestic security horizon challenges and opportunities for national, state, and local law enforcement.
Drawing on his extensive background and superb relationships in law enforcement, Mr. Hunter has created a company that provides personalized services in two main areas:
1. Comprehensive background checks and vetting of job applicants in the business and governmental sectors and
2. All inclusive, site-specific security surveys for residential, commercial, and school properties.
Copyright © 2018 Hunter Security Group - All Rights Reserved.
License Numbers: D 1530324, MB 1500254, C 1500335, G 1504095
2338 Immokalee Rd. #410 Naples, Fl. 34110
