Do you think the public has any idea what has happened to police training over the past couple of years? I hear time and time again that police training budgets have been stripped to the bone. That mandated training is still occurring, but there is no money for any other training. It is understandable that chiefs who are trying to fend off layoffs choose undesirable line item cuts as the lesser of two evils; and while this seems to be a justifiable response given the deep budget cutbacks, one has to wonder about the long term effects.
Mandated training varies from state to state (and sometimes department to department), so some officers may be getting everything they need, but those officers are likely the exceptions. As an example, let’s look at how we are developing the future leaders of law enforcement agencies. Future leaders should obviously be fully competent at the law enforcement basics before they advance to the next rank, but the core function of a leader is their influence. It is that influence which allows them to indirectly achieve desired outcomes through actions that are performed by those who report to them. Because most supervisors direct the behaviors of multiple officers, consistent and multiple achievements are resulting from effective supervisors and managers. Influence, essentially adapting behavioral communication so that others respond as desired, is part art and part skill; either way it must be developed for it to become a competency. Simply put, effective leaders bring a natural efficiency (cost-saving) to the workplace.
So how are we developing the future leaders in the area of leadership skills if we are only permitting mandatory training? More and more, individuals seeking to be promoted seek out coaching or tutoring to develop that which should have been addressed in their agency. That also means that those who cannot afford this type of development, but who would be a great leader if they could, are at risk of not ascending in the organization. Additionally, when this type of training is not covered in-house the chief loses control over how the development of these future leaders is taking place. Certainly there can be benefits when individuals seek opportunities to develop their leader skills; it just seems that all who desire to lead should have an opportunity to compete for those positions on a level playing field.
Short term fixes that have already been put in place cannot be undone, but chiefs should diligently work to assure that those cuts do not become permanent. At a time when police officers, supervisors, and managers are being asked to do more than ever before and are being held accountable in ways that were unimaginable in the past generation of law enforcement, chiefs must go beyond the mandates and invest in developing future leaders. We do not advance law enforcement by focusing on budget shortfalls and inadequacies; we do so by creatively solving the challenges that confront us. And the better we develop our future leaders, the better the leadership talent will be that creatively guides us into the next generation of policing.
