If Wentzville's new police chief was hoping to ease into her job, that hope vanished in her first 72 hours.

On Jan. 5, the St. Charles County SWAT team joined Wentzville police in a two-hour standoff after a shootout with a gunman in a hotel room.

On Jan. 21, police spent the night questioning 165 people after a man was mysteriously shot in a Wentzville church.

"Is it always this busy around here?" asked Wentzville Police Chief Lisa Harrison, 40, who took command Jan. 3. She is the first female police chief in St. Charles County.

Reflecting on her first three weeks on the job, Harrison said the incidents allowed her to quickly acquaint herself with other local law enforcement agencies and observe how they work together effectively.

The Jan. 5 shooting began after 9 a.m. Family members asked police to check on Mark C. Curl, 54, saying he was distraught and possibly suicidal. Police found him in a room at the Economy Inn in Wentzville. Police said they knocked on the door, asking to speak to him. Curl responded by shooting at them through the door. Police returned fire.

The county SWAT team responded, waiting two hours with police at the hotel. Finally, the SWAT team bust open the hotel room door and found Curl dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Harrison said she was amazed at the professionalism and tactical capabilities of the SWAT team, which includes members from every local police department.

"It put my mind at ease to know they are so effective and efficient in their operation, and that they are only a phone call away," she said.

The second shooting took place after 11 p.m. Jan. 21. Aaron Dwan, 23, was shot and seriously wounded as he helped clean up after a trivia night fundraiser at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Wentzville. The building was full of volunteers stacking chairs, folding tables and popping balloons. Police said there was so much commotion that no one realized Dwan had been shot until they saw him fall to the ground.

With help from six other agencies, Wentzville police spent the night questioning the volunteers and searching the grounds. The next day, a man came forward with information that led police to declare the shooting was "tragically unintentional."

Harrison said police were still evaluating the incident. "There were a lot of tactical lessons learned as far as containment of the problem," she said.

Besides dealing with shootings, Harrison said she spent much of her first three weeks meeting with community groups like Rotary clubs, the Wentzville Chamber of Commerce and the Wentzville Downtown Business Association.

"This is a very caring and tight-knit community," she said. "People watch out for one another. They look out for each other's businesses and homes. That helps with crime prevention."

Before coming to Wentzville, Harrison was a lieutenant in the Boynton Beach Police Department in Florida. Starting as a patrol officer in 1999, she worked her way up through the department, holding a number of positions — detective in the special victim's unit, road patrol sergeant, administrative and special services sergeant and evidence unit sergeant. She became a lieutenant in 2006. Two weeks before she accepted the Wentzville position, Boynton Beach made her district commander.

Boynton is a much larger community than Wentzville, she said. Though close in size geographically, Boynton has three times the population — 70,000 year-round residents, compared to 29,000 in Wentzville.

Three times the population meant three times the crime and a police department three times the size of Wentzville's, Harrison said.

But as a woman, Harrison has been in a minority throughout her police career. Of the 165 commissioned officers in Boynton, she was one of just 17 women. Of the 56 officers in Wentzville, she is one of seven women.

Harrison said police work is a male-dominated field. Nationwide, about 10 percent of commissioned officers are female, she said.

"I've never let it get in my way," Harrison said. "I just go out and do the job I'm assigned to do. At the road level, sometimes it poses tactical concerns, dealing with subjects larger than you. But as a female, you learn ways to handle those situations."

Wentzville officials said Harrison's gender was not a factor when they chose her from more than 70 applicants to replace former Chief Robert Noonan, who retired in October.

"It's pretty unique and special, being the first female chief in the county," Harrison said. "A lot of qualified people applied for this job. I'm honored that the skill set I brought to the table led to my selection."

From 2001-2011, Harrison was a police academy instructor at the Palm Beach State College Criminal Justice Institute. She was a certified instructor in every area of police training, an uncommon achievement for a woman, she said.

From 1991-93, Harrison served as a military police officer in the Marines. She received an associate's degree in education from Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Mo.; a bachelor's degree in public administration from Barry University in Miami Shores, Fla.; and a master's degree in organization leadership from Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Harrison said she has children, both young and grown, but did not want to give details about them. She said she is engaged.

Though Wentzville is smaller than Boynton, it has grown tremendously since 1990, when the population numbered only 5,000.

"Because Wentzville is such a growing community, it is a tremendous level of responsibility," Harrison said. "I have the opportunity to grow the police department, to mold and shape it to meet future needs, to lead this agency into the next era."