Jane Rizzoli is a Boston detective working for the Boston Police Department. Jane is brash, brilliant, and often prickly but also a confident and independent woman. She is the tomboy daughter of an overprotective mother. She is extremely competitive, especially with her little brother, Frankie, who is a uniformed cop. Jane can tackle a perp like a linebacker. She rarely lets her guard down with anyone, except her best friend, Maura Isles. As a child, she was slightly chubby, earning her the nickname "Rollie Pollie Rizzoli". She also played field hockey as an attacker in junior college. She is the eldest Rizzoli sibling, and graduated high school in the class of 1994, She is hopeless with men and allergic to dogs, but she winds up taking in Jo Friday, a stray dog rescued by her former partner, Korsak. Raised in the blue-collar Boston suburb of Revere, Jane has fought long and hard to win the respect of her colleagues, but it's her relationship with her equally stubborn mother, Angela Rizzoli, that sometimes proves to be her biggest headache. During her time on the force, she had a traumatizing experience at the hands at a serial killer known as 'The Surgeon' aka: Charles Hoyt. While trying to rescue one of his victims, she was taken by surprise from behind and almost became a victim herself. She has matching scars in the center of her palms where Hoyt stabbed her with scalpels, keeping her pinned to the ground. Her original partner Vince Korsak was the one that saved her life. Jane survived the brutal, near-death attack by Hoyt and she put him behind bars, but she was still haunted by him. In the season 2 episode "Remember Me", she stabbed and killed him.