Murfreesboro Police Chief Michael Bowen continues to encourage his staff to expand their education on a regular basis. Several local officers attended FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Associaton (LEEDA) classes here in Murfreesboro as well as in Humble, Texas and Springfield, Missouri.

The Murfreesboro classes were at the new Murfreesboro Police headquarters on North Highland Avenue. In addition to MPD officers, the Rutherford County Sheriffs Office also had five RCSO sergeants among some 35 officers who completed the FBI-LEEDA Supervisor Leadership Institute class here in the 'Boro.

In addition, several officers completed additional training at the Humble Independent School District Police Department. This unique approach to law enforcement gives "full police powers" to the staff working at that community's public schools. The safety of students is that group's top priority, and they shared this philosophy with visiting officers. Humble is an oil boomtown with a population around 15-thousand persons, but it is a border community of Houston. In fact, you can't tell where one city ends and the other begins. That puts it in the largest city in Texas with a population over 2.5-million.

Chief Bowen noted that another class is scheduled August 19-23, 2019, in Topeka, Kansas. That one is on how an agency can improve its image in a community and show it is both professional and ethical.