Cumming books 400 hours in training program

Robin Hartill

Managing Editor

Longboat Key Police Chief Pete Cumming hasn’t been spotted much on the island over the past four months. But don’t think the town’s top cop was playing hooky.

Cumming graduated Feb. 13 from the Southern Police Institute’s Command Officers Development Course, a 400-hour academic course offered by the University of Louisville in which top-ranking law enforcement attend classes on a two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off basis for four months.

He first approached Town Manager Dave Bullock in August to let him know he was on the waitlist but emphasized: “I’m probably not going to get into (the current) class,” knowing that classes are limited to 50.

A few weeks later, Cumming got a call from the SPI notifying him that a 51st spot in the class had been created for him — and Cumming still doesn’t know why.

Attending a command-level training program was a longtime goal for Cumming. In 2010, Police Chief Al Hogle submitted Cumming’s name for consideration for the FBI National Academy, in Quantico, Va., a course that runs for 10 weeks straight and includes both physical and academic training. Cumming was on the waitlist in 2012, when Hogle died suddenly in a motorcycle crash.

With the new and unexpected role of police chief, Cumming withdrew his name from the waitlist.

It took him two years before he felt he had the personnel in place — including Deputy Chief Frank Rubino and Capt. Chris Skinner — who could run the department while he took the extended leave such training requires.

Cumming opted to apply for SPI instead of the FBI National Academy for its academic focus.

“The curriculum is heavy on leadership and using resources to the highest potential,” he said. “It’s about being in command and organizing the people and the resources you have.”

On Oct. 6, Cumming reported for his first day of class in Sanford, along with law enforcement professionals from 22 agencies in Florida and two Virginia departments.

“My routine was, wake up at 5:30 a.m. to study, then be in the classroom five-and-a-half miles away by 7:30 a.m.,” Cumming said. “It was paramilitary style. You’d be in class from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. I’d head straight home and try to get in some physical fitness. Then, I’d go back to studying and be in bed by 9 p.m. There was no time for socializing.”

When Cumming returned to the Key for two weeks off from class, he had to cram in four weeks’ worth of work while also completing homework.

Cumming had a variety of projects as part of the curriculum, including the assignment of building an efficient model police department out of an agency in shambles in the fictional Rivertown, S.C.

It looked somewhat like Longboat Key: It was an island community with a single main road, although it was more than double the size of Longboat Key and contained an economically depressed area, along with a wealthy segment.

“It had tourism concerns and regattas,” Cumming said. “We had to create a marine patrol from nothing and create public outreach.”

In an unrelated assignment, Cumming wrote a 25-page paper about a topic he knows a thing or two about: dispatch consolidation.

Cumming is still determining exactly how he’ll put the lessons he learned to use at the Longboat Key Police Department. 

But one area where he’ll put the training to use is enhancing the department’s community policing.

“For me, the feedback I get from the community is my barometer,” Cumming said. “I want to have more back-and-forth dialogue with the community.”

The course also drove home the importance of recognizing good policing for Cumming, along with the importance of effective disciplinary procedures.

Cumming returned to the department full time Feb 16.

Perhaps the only individual who’s happier than Cumming that the four-month course is over is Rubino, who has been acting chief in Cumming’s absence and has had double the workload as a result.

But Rubino, a graduate of both the SPI and FBI National Academy, knows the value of the education.

“I’ve been to the school, and I know just how much he can gain from it,” Rubino said.