Nashville Police Chief Heather Burris poses with a patrol car outside of the Nashville Police Department.
Nashville Police Chief Heather Burris was recently selected to attend a leadership conference hosted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Virginia next month. According to her, she was one of 50 police chiefs from across the country to be selected to attend. The FBI National Command Course, which will take place July 10-14, will offer Burris and the other 49 several training courses and seminars covering numerous topics surrounding law enforcement leadership.
The National Command Course was originally developed in 2020 to fill a void in FBI strategic leadership training programs for policing executives. According to the FBI website, in the United States, law enforcement agencies with fewer than 50 sworn employees comprise more than 80 percent of departments, yet leaders of these agencies often lack funding and / or manpower availability to send employees away for weeks at a time to attend nationally recognized executive leadership programs.
The inaugural session of NCC took place in 2021 and will continue to graduate 100 law enforcement executives annually.
“I’m excited,” Burris said last week. “It is a big deal and I’m very honored and very humbled to get this opportunity.”
This one-week program includes numerous benefits, such as improved relationships between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve, increased liaison between departments resulting in more effective policing and enhanced public safety overall.
Topics that will be covered at the conference include: emotionally intelligent leadership, active bystandership in law enforcement, leadership discussions, physical fitness, image management, sleep solutions for officers, leadership strategies, stress in law enforcement and weapons, ammo and body armor instruction.
“It’s bringing people together from all over the country to look at different ways of doing business,” Burris said. “Bringing in different ideas, bringing in people from all over, to collaborate and look at different techniques other departments use, just giving more resources and tools to try to use to give you a broader approach to other types of policing.”
Burris said she had to apply through the local FBI office, which is located in Indianapolis. Each state has the opportunity to have a selection, she said. To apply, she submitted a letter that included information about herself, why the opportunity to attend the event was important to her and what benefit her attendance would bring back to the Nashville community and the local police department. Burris said she referenced the fact that she is a young chief with a drive to continually grow and educate the Nashville department. She wrote that it would be beneficial to continue to find ways to lead the department for not only the benefit of the community, but the officers as well. She also wrote about the specific challenges she faces as the leader of a small department in a small town.
“As the chief, you are doing everything,” she put in her letter. “I find myself struggling sometimes to keep up. Although I have an awesome group of officers that support the direction I am leading the department, sometimes it is easy to get consumed in the office work. I want to make sure that I don’t take away from the officers that are sacrificing daily to make sure the department stays successful under my leadership. With that being said, I don’t ever want to get in a position where I feel like the department is becoming stagnant or at a standstill with no direction.”
Burris said it is important to her as a leader to constantly “keep the flow of knowledge and education growing” and “maintain the growth in a positive direction.” She said she is hoping to absorb wisdom from others at the conference who have experience as chiefs in other areas of the country.
“I am very, very grateful and I am going to sponge as much of it as I can and bring it back, I think it will be very beneficial for the community,” Burris said. “I am very thankful for the opportunity to be able to do something like this, and for the support from my merit board, the council and the officers with the police department to maintain public safety while I’m gone.”
Burris said the cost of the program is being taken care of by the FBI.
