East Brewton Police Chief Kenny Brazile recently completed the Certified Law Enforcement Executive Program, which is the highest achievement awarded through the University Partnership for Alabama Continuing Education and the Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police.
Brazile, 48, received his certification and recognition at the annual chiefs' conference in Montgomery on Feb. 21.
A native of the Boykin community, Brazile was a 1989 graduate of W.S. Neal High School in East Brewton. Following high school he spent five years in the Army and then worked at a J.C. Penny distribution center in Atlanta.
He moved back to the Brewton area in 1995 and enrolled at Jefferson Davis Community College. It was while he was a student at JDCC that he met then Sheriff Tim Hawsey, who was one of his instructors.
“I asked him for a job and he hired me in the jail,” Brazile said.
He worked in the jail for two to three years and graduated from the police academy. In 1998 Hawsey put him on the road as a deputy sheriff. He advanced up the ranks to investigator and spent time as the investigator for the Child Advocacy Center. He said while still working at the sheriff's office, he worked part time with the East Brewton Police Department under Chief B.C. Cooper.
In 2009 he was named the East Brewton Police Chief.
Brazile said achieving the certification from the continuing education program was a goal of his and it took 10 years to achieve that goal to reach the 240 hours required while still holding down a full time job and working on his bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Troy University. But the certification and the bachelor's degree weren't his only goals. On May 10, Brazile will graduate from Troy with a master's degree in criminal justice.
“I worked hard and took pride in what I was trying to accomplish,” Brazile said. “I spent a lot of late nights studying.”
He said his next goal is to attend the FBI National Academy.
“I've learned a lot,” he said. “It's been hard, but it's been very rewarding.”
In the continuing education program, Brazile completed the four-level program developed by the Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police and supported by the Alabama Peace Officers' Standards and Training Commission,
The program included understanding and developing leadership styles; managing for the future; ethics and integrity; managing for effectiveness and strategic planning and personnel management.
