I attended the National Sheriffs’ Association and National Court and Judicial Security conferences at the Broward County Convention Center this week with BCSO Chief Deputy Bill Dyer. This is a big event and attendees come from all across the nation.

The National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising the level of professionalism among those in the field of criminal justice. The organization is 68 years old and offers programs for sheriffs, their deputies, chiefs of police and others in the field of criminal justice to help them perform their jobs in the best possible manner and to better serve the people of their cities, counties or jurisdictions.

The NSA and the U.S. Marshals Service Center partnered to present the National Court Security and Judicial Security Conference. Highlights of both conferences included Terrorism, Prisoner Transportation, Technology, Media Issues, Liability, Hate Crimes, EducationBased Discipline, Recruitment & Retention, Meth & Meth Labs, The Underground World of Animal Fighting (covering pit bulls, drugs and gangs), Human Performance Factors, Computer Statistics, Polygamist Cults, and CALEA Accreditation.

All of these sessions were informative and will lend themselves well to further upgrading and improving BCSO operations. The CALEA session (Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies) was of particular interest, as the BCSO is nearing our goal of achieving CALEA accreditation. This will place the BCSO among the nation’s top professionally recognized law enforcement agencies, and offer consistent operational guidelines based on recognized national standards of merit and professionalism.

I also enjoyed sessions on Techniques to Save Money and How to Be a Better Leader. We have tried to be good stewards of taxpayer money here at the BCSO and so far we have been successful.

Keynote speakers at the NSA conference this year included Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and  Mike Abrashoff, former Commander of the Guided Missile Destroyer USS Benfold.  

Napolitano, former governor of the state of Arizona, was the first woman to chair the National Governors Association, and was instrumental in creating the Public Safety Task Force and the Homeland Security Advisors Council.She helped lead the domestic terrorism investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing, helped write the law to break up human smuggling rings, implemented one of the first state homeland security strategies in the nation, opened the first state counterterrorism center and spearheaded efforts to transform immigration enforcement.
She has also coordinated federal, state, local and binational homeland security efforts, and presided over large scale disaster relief efforts and readiness exercises to ensure wellcrafted and functional emergency plans.

Mike Abrashoff is currently a highly sought after speaker and leadership development consultant, and author of the book, "It's your Ship," which has been on both the New York Times Business Best Sellers List and the Wall Street Journal List.

Among his many accomplishments, Abrashoff assisted with the implementation of the Federal Acquisition Reform act of 1994, which modernized the military budgeting and procurement processes, resulting in budgetary savings of over 30 percent in many new weapons programs. He has brought his very effective management model to corporate America and law enforcement agencies to great success.

These distinguished speakers, as well as the many educational seminars Chief Dyer and I attended have updated and further enhanced our knowledge, training and ability to increase the effectiveness and professionalism of law enforcement and crime prevention services for all Bradley County citizens.