By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – When Hurricane Katrina roared through the lower part of the country earlier this month, Lewiston Deputy Police Chief Michael Bussiere was in Quantico, Va.

He did not feel the wrath of the storm firsthand, but he experienced its effects on the men and women he bunked with at the FBI National Academy in Quantico.

“A few of the people there were personally affected by what went on. There were officers from New Orleans and Mississippi,” Bussiere said. “A couple of them had to go home because of what was happening there. It really affected all of us at the academy.”

Bussiere studied and lived with men and women from 22 countries, four military organizations and four federal agencies. The 250 officers in attendance had an average of 20 years of police experience each.

“You’re talking about a wealth of experience and knowledge,” he said.

Bussiere joined a group of officers from such places as Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Japan, Australia and Scotland. Some of the men and women he studied with were involved in investigations of the Oklahoma bombings, the siege at Waco, Texas, the standoff at Ruby Ridge and other high-profile cases.

The deputy chief has joined only a handful of local officers who have had the opportunity to attend the academy. Police Chief William Welch is a graduate, as is Auburn Chief Richard Small and Andy D’Eramo, a former deputy police chief in Lewiston.

While in Quantico, Bussiere studied behavioral science, forensics, media relations and took courses focusing on leadership within a police department.

“There’s a lot of paperwork,” he said. “There’s a lot of homework involved.”

There is also a lot of old-fashioned sweat and strain. The academy focuses on physical fitness as much as mental acumen. In the Southern heat, an officer used to sitting in an air-conditioned office will find it necessary to acclimate quickly.

“It was hot and humid. Some days it was 90 or 95 degrees,” Bussiere said. “There was a lot of physical exercise involved. When you have to run four or five miles, you really feel it.”

While exercising on a track one afternoon, Bussiere encountered President Bush wearing a helmet and sunglasses.

“He came up behind us on a bike and just started talking to us,” Bussiere said. “I really didn’t think about it much until after he had left.”

Bussiere graduated Sept. 16 after 10 weeks at the academy.

“After ten weeks, you’re really anxious to get back home,” the deputy chief said. “I really missed my family. I missed the baseball games and the soccer games. But they knew how important this was. They supported me.”

Before the academy course was over, he and the officers with whom he graduated made a mutual decision to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Bussiere said he was inspired in part by his roommate at the academy, an officer from a department just outside New Orleans.

“It was unbelievable what he went through,” Bussiere said. “He was on the phone, letting people know where he was and trying to figure out where everyone else was.”

Bussiere was back at work at the police station this week.

“Clearly,” said Welch, “both the Lewiston Police Department and the citizens of Lewiston will greatly benefit from what he experienced at the academy.”

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