Stuart Pfeifer and Christine Hanley write:

With her tailored suits and thoughtful, confident demeanor, new Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens appears more like a polished corporate executive than a peace officer.

But make no mistake about it: There's a lot of street cop in the new leader of California's second-largest sheriff's department.

Hutchens spent the early years of her career patrolling violent inner-city neighborhoods south of downtown Los Angeles, arresting gang members, racing to assist deputies in danger and, in one defining moment, shooting and killing a man carrying a handgun.

[...]

Hutchens rose through the ranks of the Sheriff's Department, working as a sergeant, lieutenant and eventually captain in charge of the Norwalk station, where she was responsible for dozens of deputies. When her deputies were involved in shootings, she said, she knew what they were going through.

"I always just ask them, 'Are you OK?' " she said. "I always make sure they have someone with them and they're not put in a room alone.

"You can't assume cops are so tough that if they're involved in a shooting they'll be OK. Some are. Some aren't," she said.

She understands that patrol work can be gritty. She wants deputies who are proactive, as she was.

Read it all here.

Peggy Lowe writes:

The moment passes quickly and Hutchens repeats what she told her new staff on June 10, the day she was appointed sheriff by the Board of Supervisors.

"'This is the day we take a step away from that. Carona and everyone else just becomes another court case, disassociated from this department,'" she remembered. "That's where I'm at. And everybody in this agency is ready to do that."

Meet Sandra Hutchens, a 27-year Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department veteran who was sworn during a private ceremony Thursday as the county's female sheriff.

[...]

"Firm and fair is a very good description of what she was," said Anna, who lives in Orange. "She ran a good, tight ship. But on the other hand, you enjoyed working for her."

That kind of leadership will be much different than Carona's style. Hutchens has yet to announce her command structure, instead meeting last week with, as she says, "captains and above" in an effort to find who she will surround herself with. Carona, in contrast, won special conditions from supervisors in 1999 when he brought in two assistant sheriffs who were not qualified and later contributed to his downfall.

When she is publicly sworn in on Tuesday, Hutchens will make another statement. Hutchens' uniforms won't include a dress coat, as Carona often wore. She will wear a long-sleeved shirt with a tie.

"I prefer to dress like the deputies," she said. "In terms of the day-to-day, I'm another deputy."

Read  it all right here.