Lt. Richard Jackson of Violet now the 18th St. Bernard sheriff’s deputy to graduate the prestigious FBI National Training Academy in Quantico, Va.

Lt. Richard Jackson, graduated FBI National Training Academy

Lt. Richard Jackson, right, places handcuffs on a suspect in a September 2012 round-up of St. Bernard residents wanted on arrest warrants for drug.-dealing.

When Lt. Richard Jackson of the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office was attending the FBI’s prestigious National Training Academy in Quantico, Va., late last year for its 10-week session an odd thing happened – at least by the standards of American cops.

“A guy in our class from Afghanistan’s wife called to tell him a bomb exploded and blew all the windows out of their house,’’ Jackson said, recalling the unusual situation.

“He said he told her just to board it up until he got home.’’

The Afghanistan officer also “spoke to us about dealing with suicide bombers’’ as if it was a regular thing that could happen any time, Jackson said.

In all, it was a reality check for a suburban policeman like Jackson, a narcotics enforcement officer more used to fighting drug-dealers than people setting off bombs in life-and-death battles with law enforcement.

It was part of what made attending the FBI training class so interesting.

“It opens your eyes to a lot of things,’’ said Jackson, who has spent 19 years with the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office. A native of Detroit, he has lived in St. Bernard 25 years. His wife, Lt. Lisa Jackson, is commander of the D.A.R.E. program for the Sheriff’s Office.

“There are so many people there (at the FBI class), you meet officers from all over and it’s a good chance to learn something from others, contribute something and take interesting courses like one I had on leadership, ethics and decision-making,’’ said Jackson. You also have the chance to make invaluable contacts with others.

“At this point in my career it was the best thing that could happen to me,’’ Jackson said.

There were 269 officers in his class, including 30 from other countries including three from African nations. Locally, police from Mandeville, Bogalusa, East Baton Rouge Parish and Ascension Parish were there with him from Louisiana.

Jackson had been an undercover security officer for a grocery store chain, catching shoplifters, when he got to know sheriff’s deputies and became interested in police work. First, he was accepted into the sheriff’s Reserve Division, then became a full-time deputy doing patrol work and eventually moved into narcotics enforcement.

Jackson said he decided he wanted to work in the Narcotics Unit because, living in Violet, he was in position to hear about things in that section of the parish “and I wanted to keep it (drugs) out of my neighborhood.’’

“It’s been an experience’’ dealing with drug cases and has given him the chance to take “all types of different courses and classes.’’

Working drug enforcement is so important, he said, because most property crime seems to be fueled by people looking for something to steal to feed their drug addiction.

“If you can stop drug activity you control your crime rate.’’

When he graduated the FBI class late last year Jackson was the 18th St. Bernard sheriff’s deputy to be accepted and go through the FBI National Training Academy.

Sheriff James Pohlmann said Jackson was a worthy selection to attend the FBI 10-week training and also said that for a relatively small department like St. Bernard’s to have had 18 officers selected over the years is a real compliment.

Established in the 1930s, the training academy is for professional development of police officers who have attained rank in their local departments.

As well as being academically interesting, the course is also physically challenging, with runs that progress to 10 kilometers, 6.2 miles, and includes 3 miles of an obstacle course.

Jackson, like other St. Bernard officers who previously graduated the FBI session, said he believes the Sheriff’s Office keeps getting invitations for officers to attend because everyone has done well there and because of ongoing participation by graduates in the national alumni chapter, the Louisiana National Academy Association.

St. Bernard is a very active participant in that group, he said.

Jackson said when he took a forensic science class at the FBI training session there was an enlightening experiment.

The instructor asked for a class member to put up a $5 bill and Jackson stepped forward. Then the instructor ran the bill through a machine used to analyze particles and announced the note had traces of cocaine.

Jackson said the point was made that so much of our nation’s cash has been near the day-to-day sale of drugs that when large amounts of money are mixed together at banks and counting institutions much of it gets left with residue of cocaine.

Jackson said it was nice when near end of the course a silent auction was held in the class, which raised $14,000 for the benefit of children of fallen police officers across the nation.

His wife Lisa visited and brought three baskets she made up with Louisiana products hard to get in the rest of the country and they all were popular with bidders, Jackson said.