Captain Michael Schentrup retired in 2021 as a Bureau Commander for the Gainesville (FL) Police Department, where he had worked for almost 25 years. The majority of his career was spent in investigative units, including major case detective, gang and burglary unit sergeant, and ultimately the division commander for detectives. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida in Sociology, with an emphasis on Criminal Justice. He attended both the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Police and International Association of Chiefs of Police’s, Leadership in Police Organizations course.
Mike began teaching recruits at the local police academy in 2001 and later began teaching Interview and Interrogation and other investigative topics in 2010. He is the founder and lead trainer of Advanced Police Concepts, LLC. Mike founded APC in 2016 after seeing a dearth in the area of investigative training, including Interview and Interrogation. He believed and still believes that current practitioners of their craft are better instructors, since they are still using and honing their techniques.
Mike has three previously published articles on sexual violence response, including “The Transformation of a Major Case Detective” (American Police Beat, 2017); “How to Sustain Sexual Assault Investigation Changes” (LawOfficer Online, 2018); and “Initial Officer Response to Sexual Violence” (Chief of Police Magazine, 2018). In 2019, he published an article on leadership called, “Joyful Command”(American Police Beat, 2019). See his articles here.
Captain Michael Schentrup presented at the 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023 End Violence Against Women International (EVAWI) conference and the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault 2019 annual conference on Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking. And he also presented two virtual events at the 2020 International Association of Chief’s of Police (IACP) Virtual Convention. In 2023, he was invited to speak on trauma informed response at IACP conference in San Diego.
In 2020, he started the APC Online Academy, to bring their investigative curriculum to those who could not travel due to coronavirus. He is an accomplished online instructor. He is also an adjunct master instructor for law enforcement for the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence and is a member of their statewide policy group. Mike was part of EVAWI’s Cadre of Experts from 2019-2023 where he instructed on trauma informed response, leadership development, and training module creation.
In 2022, Mike, along with his team, hosted the inaugural FTO conference in St Augustine, FL. Following the success of this first conference, they started the Southeastern Field Training Officers Association (SEFTOA), which followed up the first conference, with a second in Ft Walton Beach, FL in May 2023.
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