Emily Williams
Human Relations - a report

Policy Advisor Emily Williams recently graduated from LAPD's West Point Leadership Academy. She has provided a synopsis of the program, which will enhance her fieldwork.

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A Report Submitted
by Human Relations Field Team Member

Emily Williams

recent graduate from the LAPD-Offered
West Point Leadership Program

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In 1992, former LAPD Assistant Chief Jessie Brewer identified the need to improve leadership training on the LAPD and contacted the United States Military Academy at West Point for its suggestions and support. In 1994, the LAPD sent Deputy Chief Rick Dinse, Commanders John Moran, George Gascon, Lieutenant Kathleen Sheen, and Sergeant Stanley Lemelle to participate in a Faculty Development Workshop on leadership at the United States Military Academy at West Point. The same participants returned from West Point and spent months designing a leadership training curriculum and developing a cadre of instructors to teach in the newly created West Point Leadership Program.

To keep the course interesting, a variety of delivery media and instructors are used. Some lessons are high-tech with "power point" presentations; others are kinesthetic, with students getting out of their chairs to do the leadership actions in chart creation, matrix design, or field problems. A few of the lessons are decidedly "Iow-tech," utilizing in-depth discussions among facilitators and classmates. Students read both an academic textbook and a more police-oriented course guide. It is filled with case studies, exercises, and examples of the West Point theories at work in the police environment. Students also view one full-length movie ("Glory") and numerous film clips throughout the course. Computer-assisted instruction is used to teach basic course terminology and to give students the opportunity to explore both correct and incorrect answers in an interactive, low stress mode.

The course consists of one orientation day, and four four-day intensive sessions of training for a total of seventeen days. The curriculum is divided into four areas: (1) The Individual, (2) The Group, (3) The Leader, and (4) The Organization. Area One explores how individual, face-to- face interaction between a leader and a follower can lead to improved motivation and discipline. Area Two discusses how group dynamics can alter the direction of a workgroup. Area Three is an introspective investigation of how the leader can adapt his or her own behavior to become more influential and therefore more effective. Area Four explores the complex realms of proactive and indirect leadership. It examines how leaders can predict, adapt to, and control trends within large organizations. It also teaches techniques to interact with the environment in a way that will attract necessary information and resources to one's command. There are numerous homework assignments, two three-hour examinations, and a fina120-30 page paper.

The West Point Leadership Program is considered one of the finest law enforcement leadership programs in the world, attracting law enforcement executives from around the world to observe how the training is conducted. To date, the West Point Leadership Program has graduated nearly 600 leaders from law enforcement agencies from throughout the Western United States. The program graduates include many Chiefs of Police, County Sheriffs, Deputy and Assistant Chiefs, as well as countless Commanders, Captains and Lieutenants of Police. One must be recommended for the class by a supervisor or invited to participate by command staff. The waiting list to get in ranges from six months to two years. In January 2003, I was invited by LAPD's command staff to join the West Point Leadership Program as a member of its first class to include non-law enforcement agency personnel.

At the conclusion of the 136-hour course (spread out over four months), our class received kudos and certificates from the City Attorney's Office, Council Members LaBonge and Zine's offices, and County Supervisor Knabe's office. We were awarded nine graduate school credits and were honored at a graduation luncheon featuring keynote speaker Dr. Buzz Aldrin. Rabbi Freehling and Arturo Piña were kind enough to attend this graduation ceremony.

The leadership principles and theories, which I learned, are applicable not only within our department, but also in my work as a facilitator in the community and as an instructor at the Police Academy. The information I gained from this program will also be instrumental to my analysis of the role the chain of command plays within the department. The course served the additional invaluable purpose of introducing me to key command staff at LAPD and other California law enforcement agencies as a peer or student rather than as an outsider.