Back in 2008 when I became the Police Chief at the Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority I knew little about the NA. I only know that a former commander of mine when I was a lieutenant with the City of Atlanta went while I worked for him. I remembered him backing up his city car for the trip outside of the Zone 3 Precinct in Atlanta. He was gone for ten weeks then returned. I remember then Major Earnest Finley returning and after I left APD to take my Police Chief job in Florida he got promoted. Now he is in charge of all of patrol for the Atlanta Police, a Deputy Chief. So, it is true most graduates get promoted. Earnie was one of the hardest working people in the Department. He deserves that promotion.
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| My Present Employer |
When I became the Chief in Florida I joined the
Florida Police Chief's Association (FPCA). They had a great mentoring program for new Chief's and I signed up right away, after all I had not been to a Police Chief School. I was teamed up with Chief Nolan McLeod of the Auburndale, FL Police Department. Nolan was quite a man and had a wealth of experience as a Chief. It was an honor for him to agree to mentor me. Unfortunately Nolan has since passed in
2012 and I remember him every time I pass by Auburndale on I-4 going to Orlando. He contributed a lot to Florida Law Enforcement and is honored by our chief's association as a past president. We spent a day together in Auburndale and we both realized that because of Airport Policing being a specialty I needed a Airport Police Chief to mentor me. He recommended
Chief Paul Sireci at the Tampa Airport which was close to me, they were friends. I agreed, got some good advice from Nolan during my time with him, and we remained associates thru the FPCA.
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| 2008 - The Department When I Took Command |
I met Chief Sireci at his Department. From the start he took me under his wing and helped me. Even today I still call him for advice. We developed a great friendship over the years and still fellowship at conferences and events. Paul is a past president of the FPCA too and a wealth of knowledge and experience. He is an NA graduate too. So Paul told me I needed to apply for the NA when I met him. He said it would take a couple of years or more to get in but do it now so you can get started. I took his advice an filled out my application in 2009. It was actually a
nomination process thru the local field office. I waited and never herd back so I updated my application package in 2012 reflecting my more police chief experience and now, finished in late 2009, a masters degree. In 2012 I met the new local NA field office coordinator at a great Active Shooter FBI Training seminar in Tampa, FL. We hit it off well and he asked me if I was still interested in going to the NA, he had obviously gone thru the applications. I said yes of course I thought I was never going to get a chance. He told me about how selective the process was and it can take some time. I agreed and said I had been waiting since 2009 and would be honored to go if selected.
In early 2013 I received a call that I had been selected. I was excited but this was really just the start. I had to go thru the vetting process, background investigation, final selection from the SAC and then the NA itself. I notified our Airport CEO and my boss the then VP of Operations and Maintenance and they were super supportive. I was excited to get such great response from them and it really made me appreciate working there. Not only would this make me a better leader but I would bring back the training to benefit our Airport. Later in the NA I would see in one of my classes about leadership even more why our CEO supported me. He was a "transformational leader" and cared about his people's personal and professional development as a way to make employee's happy. They stay with the company.
So now the process was really beginning. I'll cover the next steps in my next post on "Once your Accepted".