Twenty-one local law enforcement officers graduated from a W.W. Caruth Jr. Police Institute leadership class Dec. 10. For the first time police officers from outside the Dallas Police Department (DPD) participated in the course.
Police officers from the Dallas County Sheriff’s office, Tarrant County Sheriff’s office, Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Department of Public Safety joined DPD lieutenants in the Lieutenant’s Leadership School by the Caruth Police Institute (CPI) at the University of North Texas at Dallas. They celebrated completing the six-week course at a graduation luncheon at The Meadows Foundation.
Lt. Fonda Boyd, who has 103 officers under her at the Dallas County Sherriff’s Department has 103 officers under her. She said she was humbled and grateful to be one of the first non-Dallas police officers to take the course.
“The resources that they give you, the tools that they give you to use, and then at the end of the week bringing in all these powerful speakers to share how to implement those theories is priceless,” Boyd said.
DPD officers in the class said having other law enforcement agencies take part was beneficial to them as well.
“Participating with other law enforcement agencies was very helpful in that it provided an opportunity for us to share different ways of handling problems or issues we all may be dealing with,” said Lt. Michael Coleman with the DPD’s Operation Disruption Unit.
“I’ve learned to keep thinking critically about how we operate in patrol,” said Lt. Albert Martinez with the DPD’s Central Patrol Division. “Every solution, whether omission or action, has positive and negative results that will counter each other to some degree. In order to find the best solutions, we have to constantly experiment and evaluate them.”
Lt. Richard Perez, DPD liaison to the City Manager’s Office, called it an honor and privilege to be selected to take the leadership course.
“The Caruth Police Institute brings a wealth of knowledge and information to the Dallas Police Department unlike anything we have ever experienced. The olive branch that they extended to us as a department and so graciously accepted by our administration is like the commercial, ‘Priceless,’” Perez said.
Robert Taylor, executive director of the CPI, spoke during the graduation ceremony. Taylor announced that he is leaving the Institute to become program head and professor of public affairs in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. CPI Associate Director for training and education Richard Smith has been named interim executive director of the Institute.
This fall’s class—which is only the second time Caruth has offered it— started Aug. 30 and featured two notable speakers: President Obama’s “Drug Czar,” Gil Kerlikowske and Secretary General of the Council of Women World Leaders, senior advisor to Goldman Sachs and best-selling author Laura Liswood.
Kerlikowske was named director of the Office of the National Drug Control Policy in May 2009. Liswood is the author of The Loudest Duck: Moving Beyond Diversity While Embracing Differences to Achieve Success at Work, which was a New York Times bestseller. Liswood is a nationally recognized author on diversity and leadership.
Taylor, Smith and guest speakers taught the course, which covers such topics as leadership management theories and techniques, legal issues in policing and organizational change. Taylor said the course—the only known program of its kind in the nation—provides advanced leadership training for a new generation of leaders for law enforcement agencies.
“I was very impressed with the quality of speakers and the professionalism of the staff,” Lt. Coleman said. “I learned the importance of establishing and maintaining credibility as much as possible when developing working relationships.”
Officers in the course can get academic credit toward a Bachelor of Science or master’s degree if they apply to UNT Dallas. They also can get TCLEOSE (Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education) credit for the class, which is a partnership between UNT Dallas, the University of Texas at Dallas and the DPD.
For more information about the class or the institute, contact the Caruth Police Institute at 214-671-3732.
