A candidate must be nominated by a fellow officer — Police Chief Mike Dickey, a National Academy graduate, nominated Maynard — and that candidate must go through a selection process, which includes a background investigation.
“I’m going to get a bigger perspective of our profession as a whole,” Maynard said. And though he’s been to numerous trainings over the years, and talked with officers from other agencies, “I don’t think it’s going to be on the magnitude (as other trainings) that I’m going to experience.”
The FBI National Academy, which started in 1935, is “a highly sought-after school,” he said.
“There are other executive leadership schools around here but the FBI is the most recognized,” said Maynard, who also completed the Northwestern University School of Police Staff & Command’s 10-week course that was offered locally.
Around two dozen law enforcement officers attended the Northwestern training with Maynard, but more than 225 students will attend the National Academy class — not only from across the country but also from countries friendly to the United States.
“It’s a great networking experience to see the way other agencies do things and the way they address some of the problems we may address in the future,” Maynard said of the 10-week course. “There are always different ways of doing things. Just because there’s one thing one way doesn’t mean it’s the best.”
Dickey said the National Academy, which he attended in 1984 when he was the New Lebanon police chief, exposes officers to “in-depth contemporary leadership practices and issues” and they work with national and international law enforcement leaders. He said it helps them become better leaders.
“I think the ability to be immersed in high level educational process was without a doubt significant time in my career,” said Dickey. “I remember several courses that I took that did force you to think strategically. This course is a broad spectrum, and it’s not police science.”
Maynard said the lessons he expects to learn, both in the classroom and interacting with the other law enforcement executives, will help in “furthering the profession.”
“Law enforcement is often in the spotlight; there are a lot of criticisms about how we do our job,” he said. “This is not Ferguson, Missouri, or New York Police Department, but in law enforcement — for better or for worse — we are all judged by police officers’ actions throughout this country.”
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