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Michael Diehl earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1994 and was then commissioned in the United States Marine Corps. He held a variety of command and staff billets serving until 1999 achieving rank of Captain.

He joined the Rochester Police Department in New York in 2000 and served in various capacities.

Within the Patrol Division, Diehl worked as a patrol officer, field training officer, gang coordinator, platoon commander and departmental staff duty officer.

As an officer and sergeant in the special operations division, he conducted and supervised high-profile violent offender apprehensions details, multi-jurisdictional operations, targeted surveillance, directed enforcement in high-crime areas, mobile field force operations and the department’s honor guard.

As a SWAT officer, Diehl was involved in the successful resolution of over 600 high-risk incidents. Assignments included operator, team leader, breacher, breaching team leader, instructor and assistant commander.

Diehl holds over 50 law enforcement certifications and has instructed for local, state, national and international venues. He retired as a lieutenant in December of 2018 and continues to instruct for Tactical Energetic Entry Systems (TEES - specializing in explosive breaching) and the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (LSU-NCBRT/ACE).

Diehl resides in Grand Junction with his wife, Kathy (CMU Professor of Dance), and dog Stella. He is an avid skier, mountain biker and simply enjoys anything that gets him into the mountains.

Diehl is honored to be the CMU/CMU Tech Public Safety Department Director and Director of the Western Colorado Peace Officers Academy.