New Training to Improve Law Enforcement Culture
Fort Wayne, Indiana – June 15, 2021 – The Problem Solving Institute announced the introduction of a new professional leadership development program specifically for law enforcement officers. Foundational Leadership for Law Enforcement Officers (FLFL) is a train-the-trainer program designed to develop police officers in leadership and self-awareness skills.
Since the launch of the program (in pilot mode) this year, ten law enforcement leaders from Chattanooga Police Department (CPD) have been developed. The expected date to rollout the program to the next group of officers within CPD is September of 2021. The goal of this program is to build a culture within policing where hard conversations are normalized, and self-awareness skills are practiced. By summer of 2022, CPD plans to have all of its department’s leaders exposed and developed in this program. The expected outcomes of this program are a decrease in the amount of officer misconduct complaints and an increase in legitimacy and trust within the community. Some secondary outcomes are decreased stress and burnout.
In 2020, CPD Chief David Roddy and Captain John Chambers decided it was time to improve the future of law enforcement by developing an approach that would integrate self-awareness skills into the law enforcement profession. The program was developed using the expertise of an advisory board comprised of sworn officers and civilian leaders based in both Tennessee and Indiana as a result of that decision.
The train-the-trainer program was rolled out in March of 2021 where the ten officers developed traveled from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Fort Wayne, Indiana with the support of the Maclellan Foundation.
Sabrina Moon, CEO of the Problem Solving Institute said, “The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) awarded more than $536.7 million in fiscal year 2020 to improve public safety, reduce crime and advance community policing. It’s clear there is a growing need to equip law enforcement officers with tools to appropriately address concerns of the communities they serve therefore, access to professional leadership training will be necessary.
Law enforcement officers have been tasked with a challenging standard - achieve perfection with imperfect humans. We can’t really know or lead the people we serve until we know our own selves. On one’s journey of self-awareness, there will be moments of extreme discomfort and powerful breakthroughs. Law enforcement officers have the potential of being some of our country’s greatest achievements in empathy, humanity, healing and compassion.”
The Problem Solving Institute develops leaders and organizations to become more operationally efficient and engaged through effective human-center problem solving. The Foundational Leadership for Law Enforcement Officers program will be released in Spring of 2022. The program consists of 16 hours of in-person training in a train-the-trainer format.
