Board of Director profile #4: Allen

Board member Bill Allen started his law enforcement career in the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in 1975. “I worked in several different division, working on the SWAT team for ten years and then the training division and then I went back to patrol as a field commander,” he says. “From there I took over the firearms training unit.”Allen was then promoted to Commander of the County’s patrol division. “I was also in the detective division for a few years, before I moved again and was Commander of the Special Operations division, which included narcotics, bomb team, gang unit, home defense and security.”

During his time in Special Operations Allen estimates he and his crew documented around 8,000 gang members in the greater Memphis area. “That’s just the ones we documented,” he says, “not including any who hadn’t been arrested.”

Allen is currently with the Shelby County’s uniformed patrol operations.

Throughout the years, promotions, and division transfers, Allen has made a point to shoot the National Police Shooting Championship.

Allen has been to NPSC since 1983 except for 1993 when he was at an FBI National Academy.

“I did really well shooting during recruitment and some of the guys on the pistol team got me involved.”

When asked if Allen has any particular NPSC he considers particularly important or successful, he says he doesn’t keep track of his scores. “They told me one time, ‘don’t ever fix on one score, because you should always strive to do better,’” he says, “so I don’t really remember.”

Allen has been an NRA member “since forever ago,” he says. “They asked me to be on the Law Enforcement committee. I never really thought about being on the Board of Directors before, and I never truly knew the depth of the NRA.”

“One of the biggest things I noticed (during Law Enforcement committee meetings) was how professional everyone was.”

After serving on the LE committee for four years, Allen considered running for the Board of Directors. “Several other competitive shooters talked to me about it,” he says. And he was successful during his first bid, although he says he feels overwhelmed with the starpower around him.

“Here I am in the Board of Directors’ room, sitting in there with Senators and Congressmen and war heroes,” he says, “and I’m a Deputy Sherriff from Memphis, Tennessee.”