Maria Yturria becomes one of only three Richland County Sheriff’s Department leaders to graduate from the elite six-month course
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Richland County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) Deputy Chief Maria Yturria recently graduated from the FBI’s “uniquely” intensive six-month National Executive Institute – designed specifically for executive-level law enforcement commanders (police chiefs, sheriffs, senior ranking U.S. marshals, and others) – becoming one of only three RCSD leaders to complete the demanding course since its founding fifty years ago.
Yturria began the training in March 2026 and graduated September 24: The course requiring her to travel for more than one week per quarter to the FBI’s Executive Institute and National Academy complex (located inside Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia); also the George Washington Leadership Institute, Mount Vernon, VA; the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD; NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL; and GARDA, the national police headquarters in the Republic of Ireland.
Each FBI National Executive Institute (FBINEI) class is attended by fewer than 50 of the nation’s top cops and law enforcement leaders from elsewhere around the world.
Yturria’s class (officially Session 48) included 48 students; all from agencies no fewer than 500 law enforcement officers. In addition to RCSD, agencies represented included LAPD, NYPD, several senior FBI special agents, and senior deputy U.S. marshals with the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
“The training was both challenging and rewarding in ways different from other schools and training evolutions,” said Yturria, a veteran U.S. Army military police officer who also graduated from the FBI National Academy in 2017. “Beyond the intensity of the curricula was the opportunity to learn from and share experiences with fellow chiefs and other senior leaders serving around the country and around the world.”
FBINEI training focuses on real-world challenges facing major metropolitan police chiefs, sheriffs, and public safety executives; everything from counterterrorism to intelligence, to strategic policing issues, and the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) to include beneficial technical assistance through AI and non-beneficial AI threats.
The FBINEI is unique in that it has no set curriculum, but trains to period relevancy.
According to the FBI website: “Having no set curriculum, NEI program managers have the flexibility to focus on policing issues relevant at the time. Presentations by various experts in the field coupled with facilitated discussion among attendees helps bring a wide variety of solutions to the table.”
A highly visible and objectively popular chief in the communities served by the near-1,000-employee RCSD, Yturria became the first Hispanic officer to be promoted (in 2022) to the penultimate rank of deputy chief in the department’s near-240-year history. She has served as an RCSD deputy – holding varying positions up through RCSD’s rank-and-responsibility structure – since 2003.
“Chief Yturria embodies the best that we are here at RCSD,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. “She’s a proven executive level law-enforcement leader and a peace officer who deeply cares about those she’s sworn to protect and serve, and she has been so for over 23 years.”
Previous RCSD graduates of the FBI National Executive Institute include Sheriff Lott and Deputy Chief Harry Polis, commander of RCSD’s Operations Division.
– W. Thomas Smith, a veteran U.S. Marine Infantry leader and New York Times Bestselling editor, is a special deputy with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
