After completing academy, Carson City lieutenant promoted to captain

Carson City Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Melvin was promoted to captain in a ceremony Wednesday morning.

Melvin recently completed the FBI National Academy, according to Sheriff Ken Furlong. It was the final step in his path to the captain’s job.

Melvin is the fourth Sheriff’s Office employee to graduate from the academy, Furlong added. The others were Capt. Ken Sandage, in the Investigations Division, in September 2004; Capt. Clay Wall, Patrol Operations, in September 2007; and Capt. Bob White, Detention Center Operations, in December 2009. Melvin works in Administrative Operations.

Participation in the academy is by invitation only, through a nomination process, Furlong said. Participants head to the FBI’s Quantico, Va., campus four times a year to take classes, he said.

“I am extremely proud of the accomplishments of Captain Melvin, as well as the others,” Furlong said in an email. “With his promotion, we have taken another step toward providing this community with the highest-trained, most qualified frontline law enforcement leaders possible.”

Melvin said in an interview Wednesday that he’d been focused on completing the academy training since he was promoted to lieutenant, in 2008.

“It’s one of those esteemed things that everyone sets their sights on,” he said of graduating from the academy.

About 250 people take part in each academy. Melvin said he learned a great deal not only from U.S. law enforcement leaders, but from those who work overseas.

“We had 29 international students there,” he said. “We saw a different perspective on how people do things overseas.”