Oak Harbor Police Chief Ed Green is spending 10 weeks at the FBI National Academy.

When he returns, don’t expect him to act like a special agent. Chances are, he won’t be sporting a black tie and mirrored sunglasses and flipping his ID around town.

But he will come back with a head packed full of new insights into running a professional law enforcement agency.

Though it won’t exactly be a walk in the park, Green said he sees going through the famous academy at Quantico, Va., as a way to serve the community.

“I believe I owe it to the community to be the best trained, the most knowledgeable police chief I can be,” he said.

The mission of the academy, which was started in 1935 by the FBI and Department of Justice, is “to support, promote, and enhance the personal and professional development of law enforcement leaders by preparing them for complex, dynamic, and contemporary challenges through innovative techniques, facilitating excellence in education and research, and forging partnerships throughout the world.”

Each year only select law enforcement executives from the U.S. and allied countries are picked to attend the intensive course. Green said one of the reasons he was chosen is because of his college degree, which means he’ll be making masters level courses at the academy.

Currently, no other law enforcement officials on the island are graduates of the academy, which Green describes as the “top school” for cops.

Undersheriff Kelly Mauck with the Island County Sheriff’s Office said he has been selected to go next year, but it’s not a sure thing.

Green said the application process is quite arduous. It can take up to five years and only about 1 to 5 percent of applicants are accepted.

The screening process involves visits from FBI agents; Green said city staff, family members and others were interviewed.

The academy itself will be even more of a challenge. He will be living in barracks with four other law enforcement officers and spending 10-hour days learning. His courses will cover such topics as conflict resolution, legal issues that impact law enforcement, managing organizational change and leadership.

As part of the academy, the “students” will get a chance to meet high profile people from law enforcement community and beyond; in the past, presidents, vice presidents and attorneys general have visited the academy, according to Green.

Then there’s the “yellow brick road.” As part of a physical fitness regiment, the law enforcement officials are challenged to run the grueling 6.1-mile run on a wooded trail complete with as assortment of obstacles.

Before taking the helm at the Oak Harbor Police Department, Green was an administrative sergeant and a 20-year veteran of the Port Townsend Police Department. He moved to Port Townsend from Los Angeles, where he dealt with the kind of serious crimes that comes with big-city police work.

Green said he will return to Oak Harbor March 21.