 If
you want to be a fireman, great.
If you want to be a better fireman, or a fire captain or
battalion chief, or municipal police officer or county
sheriff, think about enrolling in CPSLEP at Grossmont
College.
It stands for “California Public Safety Leadership and
Ethics Program,” and it was created when retirement
rates started to create shortages in the supervisory
ranks of public safety agencies.
The program, being offered at Grossmont, and in San
Diego County, for the first time this spring, targets
career-minded rank-and-file personnel from the three
major public safety disciplines: law enforcement,
corrections and fire.
Dr. P. J. coordinator of Grossmont’s Administration of
Justice program, said CPSLEP places particular emphasis
on people in those disciplines who are looking to move
into their first management position.
“It’s open to anyone in the public safety field,”
Ortmeier said, “police, fire, corrections, dispatchers,
public works, forensics technicians, and security
personnel.”
Courses began in March and continue through May, with
the second half of the program taught in the fall.
Graduates will have completed four courses totaling 160
hours of instruction in personal values, ethical
behavior, interpersonal communication, conflict
management, organizational leadership, and leading in a
diverse community.The instructors are Kingston “Bud”
Prunty, a retired California Department of Corrections
administrator, and Dan Runnestrand, battalion chief with
the Orange County Fire Authority.
Runnestrand said leadership training empowers
public safety personnel to head off situations before
they become dangerous or result in misunderstandings
that later must be explained, justified or even
adjudicated, usually under the scrutiny of the media.
“Today’s police officers need skills beyond those that
have historically been taught in the classroom and
police academies,” Ortmeier said. “With the emphasis on
community policing, for example, officers engage the
public much more than during the days of traditional
policing, when the police officer drove around in a
patrol car and mostly responded to radio calls.” |
 |
|
