Toddlers Leading Babies: Today's Police Leadership Paradigm and Its Relationship to Personnel Management

Sunday, October 20, 2024

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM ET

Location: 205B

Submitter and Speaker(s)

Charlie Scheer

Associate Professor
University of Southern Mississippi
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States

Speaker(s)

Benjamin Ford

Detective
Gulfport (MI) Police Department
Gulfport, Mississippi, United States
Joseph Hayer

Deputy Chief
Frederick (MD) Police Department
Frederick, Maryland, United States
Mark Pfetzer

Administrative Manager
Durango (CO) Police Department
Aztec, New Mexico, United States
Hank Prim

Supervisory Special Agent and Training Administrator
South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation
Pierre, South Dakota, United States

While recruitment and retention challenges often keep police leaders focused on personnel staffing, operations such as leadership development and succession planning may also be affected. Despite their growing importance, police leadership selection, training, and performance are seldom discussed. In some agencies, officers are placed into leadership roles with minimal preparation, resulting in unknown impacts on service delivery, line-level morale, and legitimacy. Using data from an original research project evaluating the effect of recruitment and retention concerns on leadership planning, this presentation encourages participants to develop strategic solutions in enhancing leadership development in their agency. Discussion will focus on best practices to develop future police leaders.