GLASGOW — One man at the Glasgow Police Department already knows the rigors and rewards involved with the FBI National Academy and soon another will join him. Lt. Col. Kent Keen has been selected to attend a 2010 session of the academy, an intensive 10-week program at Quantico, Va., which will make him the first active Glasgow police officer to ever participate.

Glasgow Police Chief Horace Johnson completed the national academy in 1986 while he was an assistant chief at the Western Kentucky University police department. He nominated Keen for the academy earlier this year and received word this week that Keen had been selected.

“To me it’s a great honor and it’s a humbling honor that I am the first chosen to go,” Keen said.

The academy brings together nearly 300 law enforcement officers from across the country and around the world to not only learn new techniques and trends in the law enforcement field from some of the best instructors in the FBI, but also to interact with each other and share ideas they can bring back to their departments. Officers come from every state — Kentucky will have three representatives in 2010 — and dozens of other countries.

Academy attendees must be nominated and go through a stringent selection process. Less than 10 percent of the U.S. law enforcement officers nominated are selected to attend the academy, Johnson said.

“It’s a great recognition,” he said. “It says to the community of Glasgow that you have people with the utmost respect for people like Lt. Col. Keen and members of the police department. It gives a flavor of integrity not only to Lt. Col. Keen but also the entire police department.”

Keen, 42, grew up in Allen County and graduated from Allen County-Scottsville High School before attending Eastern Kentucky University. In 1990, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in police administration and began as a Glasgow police officer a year later. He said his natural tendency is to always better himself and learn as much as he can.

So his promotion in July 2009 to lieutenant colonel and acceptance to the FBI academy should come as no surprise.

“Life is a giant progression. Growing up, they say college is where it’s at, you need to get your education. Well, I did that, and now I’m gaining this training and education. So it’s a progression and also not wanting to stay stagnant,” he said.

The FBI holds four sessions of the academy each year, and it is unknown which session Keen will attend. While he is excited about attending, he said the prospect of being away from home and loved ones for 10 weeks is a little daunting. Keen’s wife, Ava, teaches middle school language arts in Glasgow and said she is “very proud of him” and that “this accomplishment will take him many places in his career.”

In 2005, Ava Keen became the first National Board certified teacher at Glasgow Middle School and said she told Kent she sees his nomination to the national academy as similar in scope. And she hopes that the citizens of Glasgow are proud to have the community recognition as well.

“I hope they embrace that as a step forward for our community, and it shows how the city and the police department can grow,” she said.

As an educator, Ava Keen recognizes that Kent is determined to learn as much as he can and inspire others along the way.

“He values education. And an education is something that no one can ever take away from you,” she said.

The academy instructors teach courses on constitutional law, department management and forensics in addition to new trends in the law enforcement field. Johnson said his 1986 academy session included experts from Europe and the Caribbean speaking on terrorism and how the FBI projected it would one day affect the United States.

Johnson said the bureau intends the academy to help forge communications between local law enforcement agencies and federal investigators. Many of the larger police agencies have officers who have attended the academy and can serve as networking points of contact when the FBI assists local agencies, he said.

“It’s just a premier school and the pinnacle of a lot of people’s careers. When you’re involved in law enforcement it’s the top of the line,” Johnson said. “I would say that without a doubt it was the best experience in law enforcement I had in my career, unequaled.”

Keen, who has served as a D.A.R.E. officer and school resource officer in Glasgow schools as well as a Certified Emergency Response Team member for the GPD, said he is most looking forward to meeting members of other departments to share ideas he can bring back to Glasgow.

“What I’m interested in is learning what they have done that works well for them or learning how they have solved problems that we deal with every day, whether they be personnel numbers or specific problems like prescription drugs, or meth or marijuana. How they are dealing with those problems and what new approaches they’ve thought of that we can try here,” he said.

Outside of work, Keen said he enjoys time spent outdoors, including hiking, canoeing and camping, although he admits that he hasn’t had much time to do that in the past year. That love of the outdoors may come in handy during the academy’s optional “Yellow Brick Road.” The culminating physical test is a grueling 6.1 mile run through a Marines-designed obstacle course along a hilly, wooded trail near Quantico. Keen said he has a regular workout schedule, but he may alter his regimen to prepare for the academy fitness tests, those required and optional.

Johnson expressed hope that Keen’s attendance at the academy will be the first of many for the Glasgow Police Department.

“We’re certainly pleased and proud of him. We hope that this is the first of several down the road. Hopefully there will be others who follow in his footsteps,” he said.