At the Center
By Veronica Gonzalez Hoff
LEMIT
Focus Group Sets Agenda for Texas Police Chiefs Leadership Series
Police chiefs representing a wide variety of law enforcement agencies in Texas met at Sam Houston State University on January 3rd and 4th to identify topics for the next biennial cycle of the Texas Police Chief Leadership Series.
More than 1,000 Texas Police Chiefs are required to attend 40 hours of ongoing professional development at the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT) every two years. LEMIT is the only training provider and the Texas Police Chief Leadership Series is the only course that police chiefs attend to fulfill their 40-hour TCOLE mandate.
The topics for TPCLS are identified by a focus group of police chiefs representing municipal, college, and school districts from across the state. The new cycle of training, which runs September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2021, will include sessions on officer mental health, mental health in the community, use of force, officer involved shootings, police legitimacy, and officer physical health, among others discussed during the January focus group.
LCC Graduate Attributes LEMIT Program to Inspiring Latest BookAndy Harvey, Palestine Police Department Chief and a graduate of the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Institute of Texas (LEMIT) Leadership Command College (LCC), recently published his latest book, “Excellence in Policing, Simple Ways to Exceed Citizen Expectations in Every Encounter.”
Harvey, a command-level law enforcement leader with over 23 years of experience including working and retiring from the Dallas Police Department, and a member of LEMIT’s 66th LCC class, attributes the time he spent working through the program’s rigorous curriculum as a huge influence on his leadership ethics and the message behind his book.
“LEMIT was one of those programs that really challenged me and made me think differently,” he said.
CMIT
CMIT Hosts Columbian Corrections Executives for Leadership Training
The Correctional Management Institute of Texas (CMIT) welcomed 30 senior and executive leadership personnel from the Colombia’s prison system, Instituto Nacional Penitenciario y Carcelario (INPEC), in November as part of an ongoing Executive Leadership Training program in collaboration with the United States Department of State and Bureau of International Narcotic and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).
This is the second time CMIT has welcomed international executives. Delegates from the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and Jamaica participated in the program in November 2017. CMIT and INL have worked closely the past 2 years to develop this partnership focusing on developing transformative leadership within correctional systems internationally.
“Our goal in putting this program together was to provide them with some sort of executive level training that’s not in the corrections industry in general. Being able to provide this is part of INL’s effort to help strengthen the rule of law in Columbia,” explained Shannon McReynolds, senior corrections advisor for INL.
CMIT Emerging Leadership Training Welcomes Kosovo LeaderThe Correctional Management Institute of Texas (CMIT) hosted its bi-annual Emerging Senior Leadership conference, one of many programs the agency offers to officials from prisons, jails, and community corrections throughout the state, and internationally, to offer training and professional development based on the latest scientific studies available. The 32-hour program welcomed senior leadership from around the state as well as Nehat Thaqi, Director General of the Kosovo Correctional Service.
Thaqi was particularly interested in implementing more United States corrections processes into the Kosovo system. The director general said the U.S. system is the best example to follow when looking for best practices to implement.
“That’s our goal, we are trying to develop our state with best practices and we want to bring them back, especially trainings on correctional and security issues,” he said. “There are a lot of things discussed this week that were valuable and I plan on implementing them when I get back home, especially discussing emotional intelligence. That was new for me.”
