Director of Manatee Technical College Law Enforcement Academy retires
By Lesley Dwyer | Your Observer
Jay Romine served 33 years in law enforcement and over 12 years as a director at MTC in Lakewood Ranch.
When Mill Creek’s Jay Romine started out as a police officer with the Palmetto Police Department in 1979, officers were issued guns but not bullets.
Because he was 18 years old, Romine had a problem — he wasn’t old enough to purchase bullets.
“The chief (Mike Rushing at the time) put me in his car, and we drove down to the local sporting goods store, which was owned by my cousin,” he said with a chuckle. “The chief bought me three boxes of 357 rounds, set them on the counter, and said, ‘There you go. You’re on midnights.’”
Career Highlights
1988: Awarded Manatee County Officer of the Year
1993-2013: Served as Holmes Beach chief of police
1996: Graduated from the FBI National Academy
1997: Founded the Manatee County Law Enforcement Council
2008: Elected chair of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission
2013-2015: Served as the director of the Florida Law Enforcement Academy at Manatee Technical College
2020: Inducted into the Florida Law Enforcement Officers’ Hall of Fame
2025: Opened the Law Enforcement Training Center in Myakka City
For the next 33 years, Romine protected and served Manatee County, first in Palmetto for about two years, then in Holmes Beach, where he served as chief for 20 years.
When Romine retired from law enforcement, it only lasted for about six months before he was hired on as the director of Manatee Technical College’s Florida Law Enforcement Academy.
The job brought him full circle back to the place his career started in 1979 when he attended the academy as a cadet. He also took over the position from Rushing.
This time around, thanks to 3-month-old granddaughter Lilliana Jayne, Romine’s retirement from MTC is more likely to stick. His first day of retirement is Nov. 1.
“It’s time for me to be a poppy,” he said. “My priorities are probably three-fold. Lillie is first, the deer population in Alabama is second and staying out of my wife’s hair is third.”
Jayne Romine described her husband as “the old man at the window, noting everything in the neighborhood.”
Since she still works from home, she’s counting on the baby to keep her husband busier this time around in retirement.
Romine laughed and said cops don’t stop watching what’s going on just because they retire.
Romine’s retirement party was held at Beef O’Brady’s Oct. 17. MTC coworkers, law enforcement, family and golf buddies gathered to celebrate a 46-year career marked with honors, such as graduating from the FBI National Academy and being inducted into the Florida Law Enforcement Officers’ Hall of Fame.
Only about 4% of applicants are accepted into the FBI National Academy.
“He’s done great things,” Romine’s sister Gina Page said. “I’m so proud of him. My son is a detective with the Bradenton Police Department, and it is because of Jay.”
Detective Michael Page described his uncle as someone to emulate because he always does the right thing.
Over and over again, the party guests kept describing Romine as a man with integrity. While Sheriff Rick Wells was not in attendance, his comments fell right in line.
“As Director of the MTC Law Enforcement Academy, his outstanding leadership and unwavering commitment to training the next generation has made a lasting impact,” Wells said. “Jay instilled in his trainees the same integrity, discipline, and work ethic that defined his own service.”
The largest and latest project Romine leaves behind is the Law Enforcement Training Center that opened earlier this year in Myakka City. It was 18 years in the making, and Romine was not going to retire until he saw the project through to the end.
The $7.01 million facility features a 50-yard pistol range, 200-yard rifle range, 300-by-600-foot driving pad with adjustable lighting, two observation towers, a classroom and an armory room.
The 70-acre campus is a partnership between MTC and the Bradenton Police Department. Good working relationships between law enforcement agencies in Manatee County was something Romine created years earlier.
In 1997, Romine founded the Manatee County Law Enforcement Council. What began with a few locals sitting around a table has grown to include state and federal agency representation, as well.
“I’m proud that it survived,” Romine said. “We talked to each other, but not as a group, and we were all dealing with common problems.”
Romine is also a founding member of Manatee County Crime Stoppers. In 2008, Crime Stoppers renamed its Officer of the Year Award the Jay Romine Officer of the Year Award.
“Jay has exemplified what it means to serve with dedication and passion,” Wells said. “I am personally grateful for his friendship and wish him nothing but the very best as he embarks on this next chapter of his life.”
The case Romine will remember
After a bicyclist asked Dr. Juan Dumois for a ride from the Kingfish Boat Ramp in August 1980, the bicyclist opened fire inside the car as they pulled away. Dumois, his two sons, 9-year-old Mark and 13-year-old Eric, and brother-in-law Raymond Barrows were shot in the head. Only Barrows survived.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Matzke confronted the killer after he fled the scene and was also shot and killed. After shooting Matzke, the killer got into a car with another unidentified individual and effectively disappeared thereafter.
“The Kingfish Boat Ramp murders will always stick with me,” Romine said. “When I went to Holmes Beach, I was an investigator there, so it became my case. Ultimately, when I was the chief, it was my case. So many avenues were explored, but we were never able to identify the person who did it. It’s the type of thing that sticks in your mind because you wanted to see it resolved.”
“Tales from the Island: The Kingfish Boat Ramp Murders,” by Bradenton’s Alan Cross, was released in August on the 45th anniversary of the murders. It’s available on Amazon or locally at Three Island Monkeys on Longboat Key, The Beach Shop in Cortez and Ginny & Jane E’s Cafe and Coastal Store on Anna Maria Island.
