In her pioneering role as the Chief of the Elizabeth Police Department, the first woman to hold this position for a major urban center in NJ, she rose from patrol officer to Director. The City of Elizabeth is the fourth largest city in New Jersey. Within the city's boundaries lies Port Elizabeth/Newark and Newark International Airport. While Director, Chief Rabadeau originated Community Oriented Policing in the City of Elizabeth by developing partnerships between various city departments, the community and the police department. Elizabeth ranked as the safest New Jersey Urban Center for 1994 according to FBI statistics for violent crime.
In 1995, Chief Rabadeau was appointed to head all police operations for NJ TRANSIT, ensuring the safety and protection of NJ TRANSIT passengers, employees, properties, revenue, as well as preventing crime on the NJ TRANSIT system. She directed the activities of 149 Police Officers and 21 Civilians and administers an annual operating budget of $12 million. She infused the Community Policing philosophy within NJ TRANSIT by instituting a Mobile Enforcement Unit to serve bus commuters and a Park, Walk and Talk program for rail commuters. During her tenure, in June of 2002, Chief Rabadeau was assigned to the newly formed NJ Office of Counter Terrorism as the transit representative.
Chief Rabadeau also teaches both in-service and recruit training at the John H. Stamler Police Academy. She was a presenter at the 101st Annual IACP Conference on the Topic of Community Oriented Policing. She has also presented this topic to the Belgium Police in April 1995 at the request of the Belgium Government. In 2004, Chief Rabadeau traveled to Israel with the International Association Chiefs of Police, Committee on Terrorism to study suicide bombers.
After retiring in February 2003, Chief Rabadeau established the Edcon Press Police Fire & EMS Book Store in Cranford, N.J. Edcon Press is one of the largest stores of its kind specializing in professional development and promotion exam material for public safety personnel nationwide.