It’s an honor, a privilege and a rigorous challenge only offered to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office once every seven or so years. And last week, a captain with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office was more than up to the challenge.
Capt. Jonathan Crane, operations leader of the sheriff’s office Bureau of Corrections, graduated on Sept. 4 from the FBI National Academy, a 10-week program for senior law enforcement officials from around the country and the world that takes place at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia.
Since 1935, the academy has offered leadership, advanced education and fitness training to senior law enforcement managers in an effort to standardize and improve law enforcement practices worldwide.
“The program is very focused on college-level academics and extensive physical fitness and agility training,” Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in describing the experience at Quantico, which he completed years ago. “Only about one half of one percent of law enforcement officers in the country are given this opportunity, and we’re only offered a slot every seven years or so. People are always excited to go, but are often surprised by how tough it is academically and physically. But it’s really the pinnacle of your career if you finish it.”
And Crane finished with flying colors, completing the FBI’s infamous “Yellow Brick Road” obstacle course.
Participants from city, county and state law enforcement agencies spent 10 weeks together taking a variety of courses that they choose, Ramsay said.
“It’s truly like a shortened semester of college, where you pick the classes you want to take,” he said. “I wanted Crane to take a specific class in public speaking, in terms of press conferences when it comes to handling crisis events in a community, in addition to four or five other courses.”
This year was the first time Ramsay had selected someone from MCSO’s Bureau of Corrections to attend.
“But Jon Crane is such a leader,” Ramsay said. “He’ll be our next bureau chief of corrections when Major Tim Age retires. Crane has been a captain for a long time, and I want to send people who will come back and use what they learned there for the good of our agency and our community.”
Ramsay added that the FBI pays for the National Academy, “so I just had to pay Crane’s salary while he was gone.”
Additionally, participants in the FBI National Academy must commit to remain in law enforcement for at least three years following their participation in the academy.
