Lt. Adrienne Murray brings FBI policing skills to campus
BY DREW SCHAEFER, ’12
Lt. Adrienne Murray holds the yellow brick that she received for completing the FBI Academy’s physical training.
When Lt. Adrienne Murray of University Police recently attended the FBI National Academy Program at Quantico, Va., she was one of only seven campus police officers in the world invited to the 11-week program.
Murray joined 260 other law enforcement officers from 50 states and 26 countries for training in cutting-edge police work.
The FBI provides the intensive study in investigative and management-based policing techniques, plus rigorous fitness training, in order to raise law enforcement standards and cooperation worldwide.
She and her husband, also a police officer, had to work out care for their five children to enable Murray’s week-long stints at Quantico. She could return home only on weekends.
A 2008 Richmond graduate with a B.A.S. in human resource management, Murray describes the special schooling as “a very structured experience” — 10 hours a day of coursework, with two-hour fitness sessions interspersed, living in a residence hall with her classmates, new FBI agents in training, and DEA and FBI agents doing in-service training.
FBI special agents, academy staff and other law enforcement experts taught her courses, including labor law for law enforcement executives, managing organizational change, and crisis and conflict management, to name a few.
Murray says she acquired new insights into the administration of police departments here and abroad, information she could take back to enrich the University’s force.
One such class was futuristics — the study of future developments based on pre-existing conditions — which the FBI developed to identify crime and policing trends. Murray, with members of Quantico’s Behavioral Science Unit, investigated ways that colleges and universities could collaborate with the federal government to anticipate and combat crimes.
“Futuristics allows one to investigate what future problems law enforcement may encounter and to then take the limited resources available and apply them where they can help the most,” said Murray. She hopes to use futuristics to help University Police plan better ways to mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from all kinds of hazards that may face campus.
Along with training, the academy gave Murray a new network of law enforcement colleagues.
“Throughout the training, there were great opportunities for information sharing and networking because many of the law enforcement leaders shared similar challenges in their work,” she explained. “The University is now better in tune with the law enforcement community.”
As the training neared completion, Murray met special guest lecturer Michael Durant, the Black Hawk master aviator and Purple Heart recipient shot down over Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993. Her physical training culminated with her completion of the Marine E-Course six-mile obstacle challenge.
Back on campus, she is serving and protecting the University with a set of new skills and an international network of partners. She also is beginning the next phase of her goals by pursuing a master’s degree.
“The National Academy was truly a life-changing experience and definitely one of the most rewarding accomplishments of my life” says Murray.