Gov. Beshear selects Brian Bowling to serve as DOCJT Deputy Commissioner
Our new Deputy Commissioner Brian Bowling may be a familiar face to some. But if you didn’t know him as the Flemingsburg Police chief, a Kentucky State Police trooper or the Kentucky Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation executive director, here are a few things you should know about DOCJT’s new deputy commissioner.
Bowling began his public service career at 17 years old when he joined the National Guard. He said he knew from a young age that he wanted to spend his life in a service capacity. One of five kids, Brian grew up in a family of officers. Some may know his brother, Duane Bowling, who retired from DOCJT in September 2022 as the DUI supervisor. Others may remember Brian’s dad, Herb Bowling, who was DOCJT’s first deputy commissioner from 2002 until his retirement in 2010.
For 30 years, Deputy Commissioner Bowling served in active law enforcement, culminating his sworn career as chief at the Flemingsburg Police Department. Also, for the past 30 years, Bowling has been married to his wife, Becky, a retired Alcoholic Beverage Control officer. The two have a daughter named Ashley, whom Bowling lovingly referred to as a “rock star." Ashley will soon be graduating from nurse practitioner school and was recently married.
Bowling’s community commitment doesn’t end with his devotion to law enforcement. In addition to his service to the Kentucky Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation, he stays busy with service to community organizations. Among them are the Fleming County Hospital Board and the Hayswood Foundation Board. Bowling passionately described the development and growth of the Hayswood Foundation in Maysville, Ky. and praised it as a unique organization doing good things.
Joining DOCJT as its deputy commissioner is something Bowling is excited about – particularly given this time of growth and development within the organization.
“As chief, you know when you send your guys here, you will get a quality product back,” he said. “You make sure you’ve done the right things to make a good hire to make sure they will do well as an officer, but you send them here and they come back with a basic understanding of how to do the job. This is where the foundations lie.”
More importantly, Bowling said he recognizes that DOCJT is, “how we save lives” in Kentucky. Whether that means teaching officers how to take care of their communities, their families, or themselves. Bowling noted that DOCJT is one of the top training academies in the nation, and that while that is already true, there is always room for improvement. He’s excited to be part of a team to continue moving law enforcement training forward for a better Kentucky.
