Police captain graduates from Chief Executive Seminar
A captain with the Fort Myers Police Department recently graduated from the Chief Executive Seminar at the Florida Criminal Justice Executive Institute.
Capt. Rich T. Carr, of Cape Coral, was one of 25 in attendance from law enforcement agencies around the state. Held at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement headquarters in Tallahassee, the seminar met for one week per month over a three-month period, from September through November.
Carr and his classmates graduated on Nov. 18.
“I think it was very well done,” he said. “I felt like I got a benefit from it.”
A Cape resident since 1994, Carr has been employed with the FMPD for 20 years. Starting out as a patrol officer, he worked his way up to his current position, head officer of the department’s Professional Standards Bureau.
The bureau oversees internal investigations, training and accreditation.
Carr said the seminar came highly recommended.
“It has a lot of history to the program,” he said.
According to officials at the FMPD, the seminar covered demography, budgeting, legacy leadership and ethics. The goal of the course work is to prepare leadership for the future’s challenging and changing demands.
“To enhance my ability to do my current assignment here at the police department,” Carr said of why he attended the seminar. “The networking that you get while you’re there is a huge benefit, as well.”
The leadership elements and ethics side interested him the most.
Having taken similar courses before, Carr called this seminar different.
“This one was unique because of the length of it and how it was put together,” he said. “A lot of the instructors were college professors.”
Carr added that the attendees held leadership positions with law enforcement departments across the state, which also was new.
The seminar cost approximately $400 plus travel expenses, which was covered under the training fund at the Fort Myers Police Department.