Benefits
Participants in DPSL's undergraduate and graduate Public Safety Aspiring Leaders Programs (PALP) enjoy benefits that extend from themselves, to their agency and community.
Benefits to Self
- Participation in one of the nation's most comprehensive, interdisciplinary programs designed specifically for current and future leaders in the field of public safety.
- A rigorous curriculum built on four themes: quality leadership, values, ethics and integrity, managing differences, and interagency cooperation and collaboration.
- Bi-weekly involvement with a cohort group of public safety officials from the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.
- Ongoing interaction with officials from various segments of government and the community, as well as the nonprofit and corporate sectors.
- Involvement in projects and research of local, regional, and national importance.
- Education designed to develop new and enhance existing skills in leadership, management, human resources, planning, and problem solving.
- Ongoing networking and long term association with a select group of future and current leaders from other jurisdictions.
- Interaction with recognized experts in leadership, ethics, strategic planning, policy development, community development, resource allocation, and other areas and disciplines.
- The award of a Bachelor of Science in Management and Leadership or Master of Science in Management from the Johns Hopkins University.
- Career enhancement.
Benefits to Agency
- Quality leadership development, designed to meet the needs of agencies serving the region (Maryland, D.C., Northern Virginia, Delaware, Southern Pennsylvania).
- Long-term, ongoing approach to developing quality public safety executives.
- Improved inter-jurisdictional relationships, bringing together a corps of public safety leaders to work as a team to learn and address local and regional issues.
- Bi-weekly sessions in which leaders from the region's largest departments meet to gain new skills; enhance existing skills; and, share, discuss, and debate issues of concern to their departments.
- Improved community relations through consistency among the region's public safety leaders in their approach toward policy, practices, outreach, and problem solving.
- Exceptional opportunity for participants to put the skills they gain into practice, working on issues that affect their departments as well as those that affect the entire region.
- Ability to work with other students on projects of importance to area law enforcement agencies and community organizations. The range of projects varies according to the needs of the participating agencies. In the past, class projects have focused on establishing and evaluating community policing, conducting resource allocation analyses, developing a local or regional policy on pursuits, assessing community relations, assessing internal relations, preparing legislation, assessing approaches to violence reduction, or establishing a local police foundation.
- Ability to assess the progress of participants in developing leaderships
- Long-term working relationships among the participating public safety leaders, who go on to become mentors to those who follow in the program.
Benefits to Community
- Public Safety leaders from the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area meet on a regular basis to understand and resolve shared concerns, identify alternatives to traditional practices, pool resources, and consider joint practices and procedures.
- Through their interaction in research, experimentation, and innovation, public safety leaders are better prepared to identify neighborhood and community problems and develop effective responses.
- Inter-jurisdictional response to current issues of importance such as community fear, homelessness, domestic violence, sexual harassment, hate crimes, cultural conflicts, child abuse, drugs, safety in schools are developed, and more.
- More professional and effective public safety departments with greater numbers of executives and managers with knowledge of and a commitment to progressive leadership, problem resolution, and neighborhood and community development.
- Enhanced community service through interaction among leaders in public safety and other allied public agencies, businesses, the nonprofit community, the faith community, as well as other organizations.
- Exposure of public safety leaders from throughout the region to best practices in policing, public safety, and community service.
- Facilitated interaction between public safety leaders and a team of renowned instructors and lecturers from various professions and fields.
