Lodi officer returns from FBI academy with wealth of knowledge
In early January, Capt. David Griffin of the Lodi Police Department set out on a cross-country road trip to Quantico, Va., for the FBI National Academy Program where he lived, exercised and attended classes with law enforcement officers from 48 states and 18 countries from Jan. 8 until they graduated on March 16. Now that he has returned to his duties overseeing the Lodi Police Department’s policy and procedure manuals, patrol operations, traffic unit and volunteer Partners program, Griffin plans to apply what he learned to help improve his department.
“They had a curriculum of many different courses, and I picked four. You have to take a physical training course, and there’s a seminar course where they have speakers from various different agencies. I brought back several things that I want to try in the near future,” Griffin said.
In one class, Griffin learned how intelligence can be used to examine problems faced by cities and how to mitigate them, he said, utilizing tools such as software used by the FBI to track and log data during investigations.
Another class taught Griffin how to apply advanced strategies when investigating violent crimes as a leader in his department, he said. Taught by a behavioral scientist for the FBI, the class focused on examining why the victim was targeted, Griffin explained, and matching the crime to the suspect instead of the suspect to the crime.
“It was an excellent class, I really enjoyed it. Each one of us had to bring a case that we handled. I brought a 2003 homicide case, a shooting between gangs at a house party. It wasn’t a ‘whodunit,’ Lodi really hasn’t had a lot of those, but a lot of other cities had really interesting cases. I was amazed at how much time and resources it took to solve them,” Griffin said.
Griffin also attended a seminar on managing the law enforcement image, he said, and plans to apply what he learned to help his department’s public information officers better utilize social media and communicate with both the press and the public.
During Griffin’s fourth class, Essentials for Law Enforcement Executives, he learned how to deploy people with a short-staffed agency, shared hiring and recruitment ideas and examined his leadership style.
In his required seminar on contemporary issues facing law enforcement agencies, Griffin heard from speakers such as the chief of the St. Louis Police Department who discussed the 2014 riots in Ferguson, Mo., and a sergeant from the Pennsylvania State Police who discussed the 2006 shooting at an Amish school in Lancaster County.
Griffin compared the academy to a college experience, living in a dormitory and earning college credits. He was grateful for the physical training, saying it provided a much-needed break from writing papers.
“One paper ended up being 13 pages, I had to cite 10 sources. During weeknights, I had a lot of reading to do, it was an intensive course of study. It was nice knowing I was working out and I had fun with it because I was with my classmates,” Griffin said.
Besides his classwork, Griffin was able to tour the Pentagon, White House and Arlington National Cemetery, where he visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He also visited the Freedom Tower in New York City, took a New York Police Department boat to Ellis Island and saw the real-time crime center at 1 Police Plaza.
“It was a great experience. I met a lot of interesting people who I became friends with from around the country. In that sense, it was a very worthwhile trip. It was hard to be away from my family for 10 weeks, though, I missed my wife and kids immensely. It was hard on my wife, I have to give her all the kudos in the world for putting up with that. I also have to give kudos to Chief Tod Patterson who nominated me. It was a big burden on the department as well to lose a captain for 10 weeks, so I have to give kudos to Capt. Chris Jacobson who took over my job. He was so happy when I got back,” Griffin said.