Lou's Police Command School; Part 4: The Curriculum

  

The real nuts & bolts of a course like this are the modules or the curriculum. What are the topics or classes within the course? What is the actual content? 

Allow me to offer a rough syllabus to Lou's Police Command School:

  • Digital Tools
    • Google suite - Drive, Docs, Slides, Forms, Sheets;
    • or Microsoft, if you're forced to use tools that are unnecessarily complicated;
    • Adobe (or PDF tools); 
    • Slack (or similar);
  • Complex Adaptive Systems & frameworks
  • Psychology & Emotion
  • Meta-Learning
    • Memory Science
    • Instructional Design
    • Training versus Education
  • Presentation Skills
    • Types of presentations
    • Public Speaking
    • Slide design
  • Media & Community Relations
  • Finance / Accounting
    • Budgets
    • Total Cost of Ownership
    • Depreciation / Amortization / Scheduling 
  • Data Literacy
    • Formatting, Structure
      • Money
      • Date / time
      • Location
    • Statistical calculations
    • Basic analysis
    • Data Visualization
  • Operational Technology
    • GIS / Mapping
    • Real-Time / Patrol tech
    • Surveillance tech
    • Investigative tech
  • Agency Policy
    • Policy / written directives design
    • Strategy statements
    • Operational plans
  • Criminal Intelligence
    • Agency vs Region
    • Strategic vs Tactical
    • Product vs Dashboard
  • Organizational Design
  • Critical Incident & Crisis Response
    • The Illinois Model
    • Employee crimes, corruption
    • Officer Involved Shooting / Use of Force
    • Significant crimes or incidents
  • Human Resources 
    • Performance Reviews / Personnel Evaluations
    • Recruitment & selection
    • Job descriptions
    • Awards & Discipline
    • Scheduling
      • Patrol shift length & day-off patterns
      • Manpower allocations
    • Collective Bargaining / Labor Unions (where applicable)

A key aspect here is themes. The course will have common themes, especially around some of the first major categories, which is why I listed them early in the list:

  • Complex Adaptive Systems & frameworks
  • Psychology & Emotion
  • Meta-Learning
  • Presentation Skills.
Teach and nurture through example and demonstration. Learn the thing, by doing the thing. 

Themes are what keeps this program together into a program, rather than a disjointed patchwork of modules. And overarching themes of complexity and its relevant frameworks are vital to developing the attendees' capacity in HOW to think, versus just WHAT to think. 

With an exception, this list does not include recommended/required books; I'll leave that for another post in the series.

***

This is part of an on-going series on how Lou would design his own training course for police supervisors and command staff. What qualifies him to take on such a position? Not much more than a website and a keyboard. Yes, he's aware that several programs already exist in this space. No, he's not actually going to offer his course. But if you'd like to see all the posts in this series anyways, click here. 

***

Lou Hayes, Jr. is a detective supervisor in a suburban Chicago police department, collaterally detailed to a regional major crimes (homicide) task force.  He has a passion for multi-jurisdictional crime patterns, criminal networks, & regional intelligence. With a background in training, he studies human performance, decision-making, creativity, emotional intelligence, & adaptability. Lou is a volunteer within the National Real-Time Crime Center Association (NRTCCA), serving as Director of Joint Operations.

Follow Lou on LinkedIn, & also the LinkedIn page for The Illinois Model. ***


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