By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
Jeff Sale returned to the Cheney Police Department this month after a three-month stint in the prestigious FBI National Academy.
The Cheney Police Chief attended the academy at the FBI's Quantico, Va. campus, where he attended classes, engaged in physical fitness training and connected with law enforcement leaders from 48 states and 26 countries.
He said the networking opportunities were valuable to his experience.
“The social networking is having the ability to talk to people from all over the United States or all over the world to see how they do law enforcement, what their issues are, how they address them, as compared to what we do,” he said.
Sale was one of four Washington officers to be accepted to the National Academy last fall. He completed an application with recommendations and later a detailed screening complete with physicals and background checks before he was notified of his acceptance last summer. He said the process was well worth it.
“There's thousands of people that apply every year to go to the National Academy,” he said. “They try to identify who they think are leaders in the law enforcement industry worldwide.”
During his stint in Quantico from Sept. 27 through his graduation Dec. 11, Sale took courses in leadership, promoting the law enforcement image, crime analysis and more. He also completed a required physical fitness course that ended in a challenge termed the “Yellow Brick Road.” Yellow bricks marked the 6.1-mile Marine training course when it was created, and Sale now has his own brick in his office at the Police Department, commemorating his completion of the course.
Upon returning to Cheney, Sale said he would pick up where he left off, with some new ideas gleaned from the academy.
“My big push has been and will continue to be the image and service that we provide to the community,” he said. “What is the image of the Police Department and how do we provide service to the community? Our ability to survive as an organization rises and falls on our image.”
He also credited the rest of the Police Department staff for keeping things running smoothly during his absence.
“Everybody did an excellent job of keeping this place going, never missed a click.”
Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].
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