Undersheriff James Rankine

Undersheriff James Rankine joined the Lee County Sheriff’s Office in 2017 after more than three decades of public service as a police officer, criminal investigator, and FBI Special Agent. Prior to his current role, he served as Chief of Law Enforcement Operations.

Undersheriff Rankine began his public service career in 1983 in the United States Army as a Military Police Officer and Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Special Agent. During six years of active-duty service, he was assigned overseas, served in a domestic-based Rapid Deployment Force, and was a member of the Secretary of Defense’s security detail. He later returned to military service in support of Operation Desert Storm.

Following his military service, Undersheriff Rankine joined the El Paso (Texas) Police Department, where he served as a Patrol Officer, Detective, and Patrol Sergeant. After working in patrol and traffic operations, he was promoted to Detective and assigned to the Crimes Against Persons Unit, where he participated in more than 100 homicide investigations. As a Patrol Sergeant, he supervised field personnel and managed patrol operations.

In 1997, Undersheriff Rankine joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Special Agent. Over the course of his FBI career, he held a variety of investigative and leadership assignments. His work included domestic terrorism investigations in Oregon, drug cartel investigations in Texas, and violent crime investigations in Nevada, as well as supervisory assignments in Washington, D.C., and Fort Myers, Florida.

While serving at FBI Headquarters, Undersheriff Rankine was appointed Unit Chief of the FBI’s Polygraph Program, where he oversaw the Bureau’s worldwide polygraph operations. In this role, he supervised more than 130 examiners, managed a multi-million-dollar budget, and supported more than 16,000 examinations annually.

He also served as the Resident Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Fort Myers Resident Agency, overseeing operations in the Fort Myers, Naples, and Sarasota offices. Responsible for a nine-county region of Southwest Florida, he supervised investigative teams managing more than 200 criminal and national security investigations involving local, national, and international partners.

Undersheriff Rankine holds an Associate of Applied Science in Law Enforcement from El Paso Community College, a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Texas at El Paso, and a Graduate Certificate in Forensic Psychophysiology from the National Center for Credibility Assessment in Fort Jackson, South Carolina.