Every Officer is a Leader
Today, the role of police is evolving to encompass broader areas of influence, from local community problems to global issues. The impact an officer can have on a community goes far beyond arrest and prosecution of criminals. The focus has become more on change leadership, change management, public trust, competence, problem solving, analysis, and collaboration among community groups and other police agencies. Police work and police responsibilities are more thoroughly viewed under aspects of legitimacy. There are close links between these kinds of requirements and high expectations from the public whose police service - both the whole organization and the individual officer - should have a problem-oriented approach, act in accordance with the situation, in an anticipative, competent way and with a sense of social responsibility. A common refrain found in the research and practice is that leadership competence – as opposed to incompetence - is necessary. One powerful way to prevent inefficient management and ineffective leadership from occurring at the supervisory and managerial levels is to instill leadership competence as a required competency in front line officers, so that when they are promoted, they already have been developing their leadership capacity for years. In some recruit training programs there is a brief self-awareness and interpersonal-relations focus, but none have specific education and competency-based training in self-management, social and emotional intelligence skills, and team and organization development skills that are necessary for success in the very complex job of police leadership at any rank.
In cooperation with the International Academy of Public Safety, IADLEST has developed the specific curriculum and tool kits to fill gaps. It is called “Every Officer is a Leader”. The curriculum has been established for direct delivery to line personnel, executives and a train-the-trainer. Each class will be 2 days in length: a 2-day Executive course, a 2-day Train-the-Trainer Course and a 2-day Line Officer course. The courses will be presented consecutively (i.e.: 6 days in a row), so Executives can take the course that promotes the ideals and goals of the training so that management understands the shift in philosophy, then the Train-the-Trainer course, so that Executives or their trainer designees can receive the materials to teach the Line Officer course (for further sustainability at their agencies) and then the trainers will co-instruct and practice teach the Line Officer Course.
Training can be provided for a fee. Please contact us for details.
In addition, funding for the training may be available through the IACP CRITAC project.
Mark E. Damitio
Grants and Accreditation Manager
International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST)
Phone: (316) 640-6513
Email: Mark Damitio