Hidalgo County sheriff attends FBI seminar

EDINBURG — Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño returned from an intensive two-week FBI workshop last week ready to improve his office.

Treviño attended the federal agency’s Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. He joined 39 other police leaders from across the globe at the event, which is held three times a year.

Treviño’s class was the 58th since the program’s inception in 1998.

“Believe me, it was no vacation,” he said. “It was very intense nighttime and daytime classes.”

The workshop ran Jan. 20 to Feb. 1. Only the afternoon of Jan. 27 was set aside as free time.

The top cops took classes on things such as management techniques, said Mark D’Amico, a supervisory special agent in the Leadership Development Institute at the FBI Training Academy.

But the seminar strives to instill more than daily operations strategies. Ideally, law enforcement officials leave with better long-term planning skills.

The FBI groups leaders from similar sized departments — no fewer than 50 officers, no greater than 500 — into the same classes. Typically, the various sheriffs and chiefs learn they share the same problems. They also forge contacts to help battle these problems, D’Amico said.

Treviño shared classes with the head of Liberia’s national police, a chief from Canada and a commissioner from Denmark. The FBI paid transportation, lodging and food costs for the entire class.

Now, that the sheriff is back coordinating his office’s 750 employees, he is more confident, knowing he can contact 39 other law enforcement executives for advice on handling situations. He plans to review what he learned at the academy and put it to use soon.

“It was tough, but I was real honored to be there,” Treviño said. “We were hand-picked by the FBI.”

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Zack Quaintance covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4447.