Kendall County Times

At the April 10 meeting of the Montgomery Village Board, the board heard a presentation from Police Commander Ismael Diaz, who had just returned from ten weeks of training at the FBI Academy in Quantico.

 Diaz was called up by Police Chief Phillip Smith to share what his training taught him and how he would be bringing it back to the community. 

Diaz thanked the village board, administration and the community for supporting him and sending him to the training.

“So just a little bit about the FBI National Academy,” Diaz said. “It's a ten-week training program for law enforcement officers. It's a program designed to provide education opportunities to network with people from throughout the country and throughout the world. It's obviously regarded as one of the premier law enforcement training programs in the world."

Diaz told the board about his classmates.

"In my particular session, we had 247 students representing 47 states, I believe 28 countries, four military organizations and five federal agencies," Diaz said. "And obviously, it's an honor to have attended. Since 1935, there have only been 54,154 law enforcement officers who have graduated from the FBI National Academy. So it's obviously prestigious, and an honor to have graduated from there.”

The curriculum that Diaz took included fitness in law enforcement, psychology in leadership, emotional intelligence, communication for law enforcement executives, a seminar in managing the law-enforcement image and leading at-risk employees for executives. 

Diaz earned graduate-level credits through the University of Virginia toward a master’s degree. Diaz said that one of the most valuable aspects of the classes was the networking connections he made with other departments, sharing that he now has a connection with a captain in the Chicago Police Department that he could contact directly if Montgomery ever needed help. He shared stories of fellow alums in Pennsylvania and Florida who were able to collaborate and solve a case from states away.

Diaz told the board he learned that one of the best ways to have a strong and responsible department is to offer services to officers to prevent them from being overloaded with stress.

In other business, the board discussed paying approximately $50,00 to purchase office furniture for the village police department’s new records area from KI furniture.

The board will meet again at 7 p.m. on May 8 at Village Hall at 200 North River St.