New Thread My Settings My Posts Search Forum Home   Articles of Interest  Leadership Articles of Interest  Command School:...  Command School: The Education Process for Future Law Enforcement Leaders    7/2/2007 12:02:07 PM melmunn 19 posts Command School: The Education Process for Future Law Enforcement Leaders  (N/A)  Quote Reply Command School: The Education Process for Future Law Enforcement Leaders By: Thomas Q. Weitzel, Assistant Chief of Police, Riverside, Illinois Police Department Purpose The following article will discuss some of the objectives of the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety School of Police Staff and Command. It will specifically cover course content describing how the principles, techniques, and methods covered in the course relate to the development of command personnel. At the conclusion of this article, I will make suggestions on how agencies can improve service to the citizens they serve. There were over 30 topics covered dealing with managerial development and leadership enhancement. For the purpose of this article, I have selected four main topics that I feel are essential to the growth and development of any potential law enforcement executive. They are management, leadership, ethics and integrity, and policing in the 21st century. Management The School of Police Staff and Command is an executive level management school focusing on understanding fundamental management skills. Management is “the art of getting things done through people.” While attending this school, I developed my own definition of management. I believe that management is the attainment of organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling organizational resources. It is through planning that management defines goals for future organizational performance and determines the tasks and resources needed to obtain them. Organizing involves assigning tasks, grouping tasks into departments, and allocating resources to departments. Leading is the management function that involves the use of influence to motivate employees to achieve organizational goals. Controlling encompasses motivating employees’ activities, keeping the organization on track toward its goals, and making corrections as needed. There is no one perfect overall management style for leading police organizations to the next level of professionalism; however, the following prescriptions can increase police managers’ effectiveness from ground zero thereby turning theory into practice. These include the following: • Plan before you plunge. • Don’t crusade alone. • Bring everyone on board. • Be sensitive to the various impact of change within the organization and among individuals. • Implement the entire change strategy not just slogans. 122 Law Enforcement Executive Forum • 2004 • 4(1) • Measure, modify, monitor, and maximize. • Use time as a tool. • Reinforce desired behavior, and highlight progress. • Confront and deal with dysfunctional behavior. • Beware of the half-way blues. The secret to effective utilization of new management theories is to avoid change simply for change’s sake and to attempt to implement only those practices that will aid the organization in accomplishing its mission more effectively. Leadership To understand and excel in leadership in police organizations, you must first define the difference between management and leadership. A good manager does things right. A leader does the right thing. It is through Northwestern University’s teachings that I learned the true meaning of leadership, specifically transformational leadership for managers. Leadership consists of four common organizational universals: (1) purpose, (2) people, (3) power, and (4) politics. Transformational leadership is defined as “determining what subordinates need to do to achieve objectives, classify those requirements, and help subordinates become confident that they can reach their objectives.” It is my belief that leadership can be taught. With this in mind, I have developed five key values for effective leadership: (1) clear communication, (2) ethical practices, (3) a diverse workforce, (4) ongoing recognition, and (5) participatory empowerment. While leadership is a complex process, it can be described by identifying its main elements, each of which is an ingredient, a component, and a facet of leadership that can be isolated and examined. These elements are initiative, inquiry, advocacy, conflict resolution, decisionmaking, and critique. All six elements are vital to effective leadership because none can compensate for the lack or over-abundance of any other. Initiative is exercised whenever effort is concentrated on a specific activity—to start something that was not going on before, to stop something that was occurring, or to shift direction and character of effort. Inquiry permits a leader to gain access to facts and data from people or other informational sources. The quality of inquiry may depend on a leader’s thoroughness. To advocate is to take a position. Conflict resolution is when people have different points of view and express them; disagreement and conflict are inevitable. A leader who can face conflict with others and resolve it to their mutual understanding invokes respect. It is through decisionmaking that leadership is applied to performance. It may involve solo decisionmaking in which the leader alone is the ultimate decisionmaker or delegation of responsibilities for decisions (teamwork), in which all available resources are involved in making and implementing decisions. Critique describes a variety of useful ways to study and solve operational problems, which members face either individually or collectively as they carry out their assignments. I agree wholeheartedly with the following quote attributed to leadership by Colonel Paul McNicol, United States Marine Corp: “If you are not making anyone mad, you are not getting anything done.” Ethics and Integrity Probably one of the most important learning experiences I brought back from Northwestern University was the teaching of principles and ethics for police managers/executives. Ethics and integrity in police departments is public service with honor. Integrity is a yardstick for trust, competence, professionalism, and confidence. Policing in a democracy requires high levels of integrity if it is to be acceptable to the people. Historically, in the United States, there have been many times when public trust in the integrity of the police has been questioned. Events in the 1990s eroded public trust in the integrity of police; this situation has resulted in a closer scrutiny of the profession and its response to this critical issue. The most essential element of a successful democratic government is freedom for all citizens to exercise their constitutional rights without the fear of threat or endangerment. The basic mission of the American criminal justice system is to protect this freedom. The police, one of the strongest elements of the foundation of the criminal justice system, must ensure the public’s trust if the system is to perform its mission to the fullest. Public trust can exist only when the police execute their duties with fairness, equity, professionalism, and rigor. A police agency that performs in this manner also has integrity and honor. During my ten weeks at Police Staff and Command, I had the assignment of developing my own dynamics of police integrity/ethics. The following elements will impact and challenge the integrity of police officers during their career: economy/personal finance, diversity issues within the department, family values/moral literacy, experience with aggressive police tactics, the police subculture, community response to police activities and presence, frustration with the criminal justice system, peer influence, and alcohol/drug abuse. I believe that ethics is the single most important quality a police executive can possess. In law enforcement, we should all work toward the day when the bad cop will fear the good cop and not the other way around. Why must the police act ethically? The need for police officers to act ethically is rooted in our very understanding of what it means to live in a democratic society. The public makes two commitments: (1) to give the state the authority to govern and (2) to abide by the rules of the state. In exchange, the state agrees to govern in the public’s interest. Trust is the foundation of the contract between the people and the state in democratic societies. It is the glue that binds us together. The police have a special responsibility to act ethically and to ensure that the public’s confidence remains intact. Both the public’s feelings and the importance of ethical behavior are aptly captured in the question, “ If you can’t trust a cop, who can you trust?” Policing in the 21st Century This category includes many topics that law enforcement agencies are going to be faced with as we are beginning the 21st century. I feel one of the most critical issues is managing “Generation X” employees. Generation Xers are ambitious, determined, independent, confident, and have much to offer. With that in mind, I developed a list of “do”s and “don’t”s for managing Generation Xers. The following methods are particularly productive for managing and working with this group of the population: • Accept them. • Support them outside of work. • Don’t baby them. • Ask, ask, ask. • Discuss your methods. • Train and orient. • Set specific standards. • Make work enjoyable. Some of the challenges that top law enforcement executives will face with Xers are listed below: • Expect less loyalty and commitment. • Generation Xers keep options open/willing to move from department to department for perceived better job. • They crave attention. • They have propensity for fun—not work ethic first. • They often question the boss. • They have unrealistic and materialistic views. Generation Xers have evolved in dramatically different ways from previous generations. What motivates past generations is far different from what motivates this new breed, but the changes will be for the better in many ways. Future police employees may not be what they use to be, but if we listen, there is a lot we can learn from them. The future of law enforcement may very well depend on our clear understanding of this population. Conclusion The following are my suggestions as to how law enforcement agencies can improve service to the citizens through the principles, techniques, and methods I studied while attending Northwestern University School Police Staff and Command. The awareness of the importance of leadership in law enforcement is at an all time high. I believe that this is evident by my graduation from Northwestern University. Under previous administrations, the opportunity for me to attend would have never been possible. Management, leadership, and professional growth were not a top priority until a leader took over who was not threatened by his subordinates. I would also encourage the departments to stay focused on the new management policy of progressive discipline. The role that progressive discipline plays in law enforcement today is one that assures that the police department has a firm set of policies. A disciplined police department is a well-trained police department. A well-trained police department is a professional police department. A good discipline program in place within any agency provides the department with good policies because discipline is not just punishment; it is training. The management of Generation X employees has arrived. My suggestion for continued success in managing this group of individuals is strong management policies from the top. These policies must be clearly defined and discussed within the department. With the propensity for Generation Xers to challenge authority, strong leadership is essential. The phrase that best fits this category is “lead by example.” Thomas Q. Weitzel, assistant chief of police, currently heads the Riverside, Illinois Police Department’s Administration Division. He has been on the Riverside Police Department since September 1984. Before coming to Riverside, he served as a patrolman for the Chicago Zoological Park Police at the Brookfield Zoo. Assistant Chief Weitzel has held various positions within the Riverside Police Department including crime prevention coordinator, evidence technician, public information officer (PIO), Major Crime Assistance Team (MCAT) member, field training officer, and internal affairs supervisor. Assistant Chief Weitzel holds a master’s degree in criminal social justice from Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois and is a graduate of the Illinois Law Enforcement Executive Institute’s Executive Management Program. He is also a graduate of Northwestern University Center for Public Safety School of Staff and Command. He served as Vice President of Class 115. Assistant Chief Weitzel also holds certificates of graduation from the Institute of Police Technology and Management, University of North Florida; the National Crime Prevention Institute, Louisville, Kentucky; and the Law Enforcement Executive Development Association (LEEDA) FBI. Additionally, Assistant Chief Weitzel is a recent graduate of the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration, the Center for American and International Law, Dallas, Texas. He is a nationally certified ethics instructor through the Southwest Legal Foundation. Assistant Chief Weitzel is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, Police Benevolent Association, Illinois Police Association, Northwestern University Alumni Association, International Association for Identification, Illinois Crime Prevention Officers Association, West Suburban Chiefs of Police, and the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.  Page 1 of 1   Articles of Interest  Leadership Articles of Interest  Command School:... 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