Mr. Leach began his law enforcement career in 1975 as an officer with the Safety and Security Department at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He then accepted a position as a patrol officer with the Sharon Tennessee Police Department. Following his work at Sharon PD, he was privileged to serve as a Trooper with the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Mr. Leach started his investigative career as a Special Agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation where he specialized in the investigation of violent crime, official corruption, narcotics, and undercover work of all types. He was known for working with other agencies, state, local, and federal, and served on numerous task forces. Some of his most notable cases involved serial killers and other capital murders cases, large interstate narcotics investigations, and working undercover solicitation cases involving multiple murders.
Leach was promoted to Special Agent in Charge with the TBI and placed in charge of 53 counties east of Nashville. He supervised 27 criminal investigators working on major felony cases.
In the latter part of 1988, he was appointed Director of the Criminal Investigation Division for the Tennessee Department of Safety, commonly known as the THP CID. During his tenure, the division grew from 45 members to 150 and expanded their duties to investigate literally any type crime of that that occurred in the state from follow up investigations on felony traffic stops, to narcotics investigations, to murder cases and everything in between. The division also handled any serious internal investigations in the department.
Mr. Leach served as a cold case homicide investigator for the Jackson Tennessee Police Department, the Gibson Tennessee County Sheriff Department and the Madison County Tennessee Sheriff Department. Since 1994 he has been co-owner of Training Services Group Inc. along with his partner Commander Dennis Mays. Along with their associates, they have provided training in law enforcement, homeland security, workplace violence, and personal safety training to thousands of students throughout the United States.
Mr. Leach is a graduate of the FBI National Academy (133rdSession), the Tennessee Government Executive Institute, and holds a B.S. degree from UT Martin. He was the Tennessee representative to the first Arkansas Leader seminar presented by the F.B.I. and the University of Arkansas Little Rock and the S.T.A.R. (small town and rural drug enforcement) training seminar at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco Georgia.
He served as the vice president of the Tennessee Narcotics Officers Association and in 2003 received the award for Outstanding Achievement from the University of Tennessee Martin.
Mr. Leach has conducted security assessments for many banks, schools, and businesses and helped them to develop effective security policies and procedures.
After writing numerous articles for various publications discussing workplace violence, personal safety, and homeland security, Mr. Leach published his first book, “You Can Tell ME”. The work is intended to be a simple guide for effective interviewing and is available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle versions. He just finished his second book, “Not in OUR HOUSE” which deals with defeating workplace violence, and his third book, “Simply Safer,” provides effective tips to keep you safer in your everyday life. Jim appears weekly as a law enforcement analyst on Steve Bowers’ popular radio show “Blue Sued Forever” and hosts his own show, along with co-host Brad McCoy, The Investigator. Both shows can be heard on 93.1 FM in Jackson Tennessee and they stream live on thetalkofjackson.com and newstalkwtn.com.
Mr. Leach was inducted into the Carroll County Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
To review more of his work, you can find many podcasts, blogs, and articles at tugnews.com, leachtaining.com, and the Facebook page Tennessee Underground.