The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office is proud to announce that Lieutenant Todd Lussier graduated from the FBI National Academy.
The FBI National Academy is a professional course for law enforcement leaders held at the FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia. The course of study serves to improve the administration of justice in law enforcement agencies at home and abroad and to raise law enforcement standards, knowledge, and cooperation worldwide.
Participation in the course is by invitation only, through a nomination process. Participants are drawn from every state in the union, from U.S. territories, and from over 160 international partner nations.
During the 10 week course, students take undergraduate and/or graduate college courses in the following areas: law, behavioral science, forensic science, understanding terrorism/terrorist mindsets, leadership development, communication, and health/fitness. They participate in a wide range of leadership and specialized training, and share ideas, techniques, and experiences with each other, creating lifelong partnerships that span state and national lines.
Not totally an academic pursuit, the course also entails physical fitness training. The final test is the fitness challenge named “Yellow Brick Road”. It consists of a 6.1-mile grueling run through a hilly, wooded trail built by the Marines. Along the way, the participants must climb over walls, run through creeks, jump through simulated windows, scale rock faces with ropes, crawl under barbed wire in muddy water, maneuver across a cargo net, and more. When (and if) the students complete this difficult test, they receive an actual yellow brick to memorialize their achievement.
Since 1935 the FBI National Academy has been training law enforcement leaders to confront the growing challenges of their positions.
Sheriff Mark Hunter also a FBI National Academy alumni stated, “I’m proud of Todd and I’m sure he will apply what he has learned to better our agency and community.”
