By Michael Bielawski

Washington County Sheriff Marc Poulin attended an elite training program at the FBI National Academy early this summer, returning in late June from two and a half months of training.

Poulin was among several Vermont law enforcement officers to attend over the years. This year, he was Vermont’s only participant.

“The intent of it is to make you a better person, a better leader, and to give you resources wherever you go,” Poulin said. “So for me, I’m in my 21st year of law enforcement, so going away for 11 weeks and it was a chance to separate the head, let the stress level lift off, be present in the classes soaking in as absolute much as I can.”

Their department – along with much of the rest of law enforcement worldwide – has been dealing with staff shortages among other challenges such as rising crime, drug use, and poverty. This program is designed to improve law enforcement in multiple areas.

“It is a very rigorous process to get in; less than 1 percent of law enforcement get accepted worldwide,” Poulin said. “It’s collegiate-based and network building and all kinds of group work. It’s 18 masters level college credits is what you get from the University of Virginia.”

Started in 1935 by J. Edgar Hoover, the program is held at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Poulin was among more than 250 law enforcement to take at least five classes each. Each applicant must hold lieutenant’s rank, pass a background investigation, and a physical fitness test.

Some other Vermont graduates of past classes include Sheriff Mike Elmore of Addison County, Sheriff Kevin McLaughlin of Chittenden County, Chief Brad Vail for Barre City Police, Deputy Chief Larry Eastman also of Barre City Police, Chief Doug Hoyt of Montpelier Police, Chief Anthony Facos of Montpelier Police, Chief Shawn Burke of Burlington Police, Captain Jake Elovirta of the Vermont Highway Patrol, and Brandon King of the Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery Compliance.

Attendees make new connections with law enforcement worldwide.

“The minute I say I’m a graduate of the National Academy, they [law enforcement connections] will be like, ‘How can we help?’” he said. “That’s a huge takeaway, and that’s some of the reason that the class, J. Edgar Hoover wanted to foster these relationships in law enforcement nationwide and spread to the entire world.”

Singapore, Saudi Arabia, England, Bosnia, Ukraine, and Brazil were among the nations where other participants came from.

They took courses that included a physical fitness class, Global Perspectives in Law Enforcement Leadership, Constitutional Case Law, Police in Media Relations, Conflict Resolution, and a forensics course.

Poulin discussed the Global Perspectives course.

“The problems that we all face are essentially the same,” he said. “How to interact with our community and crime is out of control; it doesn’t matter where you are. We all have the same problems, and it was a lot about well this is what I do here and this is what we do there, and taking a little bit from here and there and trying to piece together best practices from around the world.”

He spoke of the forensics course.

“So they have metallurgists, and they have fingerprinting, and writing and blood and fluid and firearms and explosives. It’s just amazing the people that came in and spoke.”

He talked about the “Yellow Brick Road” run, a part of the physical fitness course.

“It was a 6.1-mile Marine Corps-designed obstacle course. … “It’s a lot. It’s typical military obstacles, so there are rock walls that you are going up on ropes, rock walls that you are going down on ropes, the netting, the barriers that you got to jump over, the logs set up on posts, walls that you’ve got to vault over, a water pit that you’ve got to go wading through, running on back trails, uphill, downhill, it’s in the woods.”

VDC asked what common challenges officers face worldwide. The first thing is getting more cops.

“Recruiting was number one, trying to get people to be cops,” Poulin said. “That was number one across the board.”

That doesn’t mean Washington County is lowering hiring standards.

“We keep our standards here very high,” he said. “I’ve had an opening for quite some time. I actually got a call yesterday asking, ‘Well, are you going to fill this?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I want to fill this with the right person, not just a person.’”

Regarding challenges pressing in Vermont, he talked about homelessness.

“When we interact with them directly, we have some conversations and everyone’s story is different, how they ended up where they are,” he said. “A lot of it seems to revolve around mental illness and substances, trauma of some kind from their past. There’s not a single common thread with any of them.”

Michael Bielawski has over a decade of experience covering Vermont politics, and you can follow his coverage of international politics at youtube.com/@TheLastDefense26.