Police Training, Breaking all the Rules: Implementing the Adult Education Model Into Police Training

• NCJ Number: 187340
• Author(s): Michael T. Charles Ph.D.
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 290 pages
• Sale Source: Charles C. Thomas
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A 7-year study of the Police Training Institute at the University of Illinois focused on the change process in this setting, the process of implementing an adult education model into the police academy and in-service training, and to suggest ways to develop a standardized training design based on adult education principles.

Abstract

The study began in 1992. It consisted of numerous quasi-experimental and experimental research projects. These projects used participant observation, survey research, and a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The researcher was also the Institute’s new director and served as director/researcher through the study’s completion in June 1999. The analysis focused on the history of training in Illinois, the total quality management established by the Institute’s director as the major leadership technique, and the efforts to reengineer the Institute into a learning organization. The analysis also focused on the experiences and attitudes of the police recruits, and the experiences and attitudes of the instructional personnel and staff. Results revealed that the first major effort at organizational and cultural change was with the recruits and with discipline. Changes in the Institute’s policies, procedures, and practices focused on making the Institute a learning organization. The standardization and integration of training became an overall goal of the institutional staff. Training trainers was crucial to this process, as well as an important element in enhancing instruction. The analysis concluded that the Institute achieved most of the goals established since 1992 and that an entire rethinking of the process of police training was necessary for training to be successful. The Institute’s experience also demonstrated that change was continual, that the personnel had to continue to develop and change, and that commitment by organizational members was the central element in the successes obtained. Footnotes, index, and 191 references