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Capt. John Deegins of Panama City Beach Police Department to attend FBI National Academy

Nathan Cobb
The News Herald

PANAMA CITY BEACH − A Beach Police officer will soon join the 1% of law enforcement officials who have attended a prestigious FBI training program.

Capt. John Deegins of the Panama City Beach Police Department is among the approximately 250 officers from across the world selected to participate in session 286 of the FBI National Academy, an extensive 10-week training course that will be held in Quantico, Virginia.

Deegins, who has about 25 years of experience with the Beach Police, is scheduled to leave Friday and return home in early June.

Capt. John Deegins of the Panama City Beach Police Department was selected to participate in session 286 of the FBI National Academy.

"I'm certainly honored that the city has the faith to send me to this very challenging training," he said. "I plan on learning as much as I possibly can to bring back to this city and to our community. .... This is such an amazing opportunity. It's going to be a challenging opportunity also, but I look forward to that challenge."

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According to Chief J.R. Talamantez of the Beach Police, Deegins will become the fourth officer from the department to attend the FBI training course. Talamantez was the last to participate in 2019.

He said the FBI hosts the training academy a few times a year, and its purpose is to "combine law enforcement executives from all walks of life to help figure out problems that are plaguing not only our country, but the world."

"We're strengthened by our brothers and sisters in the amount of information we can leverage from each other," Talamantez said. "The biggest thing in law enforcement is we do nothing alone. It's always a partnership in everything we do. Having the ability to call somebody on their cell phone and run something by them from another state, another country to get their perspective on things provides us the ability to make more well-informed decisions.

During the academy, Deegins will live in a barrack-style building and participate in physical training, as well as training in other areas such as active shooter situations, national threats and cyber security.

"This is the most premier law enforcement training in the country, if not the world," Talamantez said. "It's very difficult to get a spot. We're fortunate. Our partnership with the federal government and our partnership currently with the bureau has played a large part in that, and it just shows how we are trying to stay with modern times here at the Beach Police."