Pequot Lakes: Police chief reflects on FBI Academy experience

Klang attended the academy from Oct. 15-Dec. 15, working on his master's degree. President Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray all spoke at the FBI Academy graduation ceremony.

"They haven't had a president speak since President Nixon," Klang said of the graduation ceremony. "He (Trump) said a lot of nice things about law enforcement."

The FBI National Academy was started in 1935 to promote centralized training among law enforcement departments across the United States. The academy is located at the FBI Academy at Marine Corps Base Quantico.

That first academy group totaled 25 police leaders from across the nation, Klang said. Today, classes meet four times a year, and each class hosts up to 250 people who are active in law enforcement from across the United States and other countries.

"The principal behind it is to provide leadership, quality education, quality training and to promote - in this case - the 21stt century policing concepts, or six pillars Obama put in place," Klang said.

Those six pillars from the President's Task Force for 21st Century Policing are: Building trust and legitimacy; policy and oversight; technology and social media; community policing and crime reduction; training and education; and officer wellness and safety.

While at the academy, Klang took higher level classes in organizational leadership and homeland security while pursuing his master's degree. People from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with firsthand knowledge shared insight and information on how they've handled terrorism. Klang praised his instructors for the knowledge they shared. Classes included counter terrorism, intelligence-led policing, intelligence theory and critical incident leadership.

"I learned a lot," he said.

The academy was rigorous. A typical day went from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and included intense studying and writing papers, fitness training and education. There was not a lot of down time.

Those who attended represented the full gamut of police department sizes, Klang said, and included people from police and sheriff's departments, as well as military police.

"It was interesting to see how other people are doing it across the country, across the world," he said of law enforcement. "Minnesota is on the forefront of providing good, quality law enforcement to our communities."

He did pick up ideas, and he stressed the importance of law enforcement personnel building relationships with their communities and community partners.

"That's priceless. Not everyone has that at all. In fact, there were quite a few who don't," Klang said, noting he appreciates the support and respect citizens in this area have for law enforcement.

He hopes to use new ideas and techniques he learned at the academy in delivering law enforcement services in Pequot Lakes and across Crow Wing County.

Klang told the city council last March that involvement in the FBI Academy is by invitation only through a nomination process. Participants are drawn from every state and from over 150 international partners with only 1 percent of law enforcement invited to attend. Klang completed an application to attend the academy several years ago.