Lieutenant Harless has served the Birmingham Police Department for over 16 years, starting his career in 2007. After completing the Academy, he began at South Precinct as a Patrol Officer. Soon afterward, he was assigned to the Precinct Task Force before going to the City Wide Task Force. After four years in a patrol capacity, he was assigned as a Detective, spending the next seven years working in Auto Theft, Robbery, and Homicide. In 2018, he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. Over the next four years, he supervised personnel at South Precinct, Records, Training, North Precinct, The World Games, and Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 2022, assigned to North Precinct, and then to South Precinct, where he currently serves as a Shift Commander.
Lieutenant Harless has an Associate Degree in Criminal Justice from Eastern Gateway Community College and is currently working on his Bachelor’s Degree in Management and Leadership from William Woods University. This path toward leadership has allowed Lt. Harless to be the first Birmingham Police Officer to receive the FBI LEEDA Trilogy award after completing all phases of leadership training in Supervisor, Command, and Executive classes.
Harless has positioned himself to serve the citizens of Birmingham in various formats as he has obtained several instructor certifications. The one he is most proud of is aligning with Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERT), which is the foundation for law enforcement mass casualty response training. His various instructor certifications have allowed him to attend multiple schools, churches, and businesses to teach Run Hide Fight. This is a civilian response to mass casualty events, which has been trained to thousands since its inception to those in the Birmingham area.
