Advancing Women’s Leadership in Law Enforcement

By Director Connie Patrick, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
 
Last week, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) hosted 21 women in law enforcement as part of FLETC’s Women in Law Enforcement Leadership Training Program at our headquarters in Glynco, GA. FLETC hosted a week-long leadership training program to help promote and support women’s leadership in law enforcement, discuss current leadership challenges for women in law enforcement, and help facilitate career planning.
 
 During the training program, I had the great privilege to join U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Chief of Staff Julia Pierson and FLETC Assistant Directors Cynthia Atwood and Dominick Braccio for a panel discussion on law enforcement leadership topics. 
 
USSS Chief of Staff Pierson began her career as a police officer in Orlando, Florida and then served as a USSS Special Agent assigned to the Miami Field Office.  FLETC Assistant Director Atwood was a special agent at the United States Department of Agriculture before coming to FLETC 15 years ago to promote law enforcement training excellence.  FLETC Assistant Director Braccio has 32 years of law enforcement experience and recently received the Outstanding Advocate for Women in Federal Law Enforcement Award for his contributions in areas of recruiting, retaining, and promoting women in law enforcement from the Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE) Foundation.
 
During the panel discussion, we noted that, while the law enforcement officers in attendance  represented a diverse spectrum of agencies and functions, they shared common experiences as women in law enforcement. Although women make up 47 to 50 percent of the workforce in the United States, they constitute only up to 20 percent of the law enforcement workforce and are underrepresented in the management ranks.
 
Here at FLETC, we are working hard to advance issues that impact women in law enforcement.  In the coming year, we will hold Women in Law Enforcement Leadership Training Programs at the FLETC domestic centers and internationally at the International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEA) in Thailand, Hungary, Botswana, and El Salvador. 
 
We at FLTEC understand that the law enforcement profession as a whole will continue to improve as women bring their skills and experience to leadership roles in law enforcement organizations across the country and around the world, and we look forward to being a part of their good work.                                          
                                     
Connie Patrick is Director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), DHS’s law enforcement training organization.  Last year, FLETC trained more than 70,000 law enforcement professionals in skills including fingerprinting, tracking financial transactions, counterterrorism tactics, securing a building and searching a crime scene.

Timothy J. Delaney Named Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Division at the Los Angeles Field Office

Tim Delaney is not only an excellent FBI leader, but he was a military leader.  Check out these military leadership books and become one of the best!

Director Robert S. Mueller, III named Timothy J. Delaney special agent in charge of the FBI’s Criminal Division at the Los Angeles Field Office. Mr. Delaney most recently served as section chief for the New Agent’s Training Program Section in the FBI’s Training Division. In this role, he was responsible for the development and delivery of training programs for new special agents.

Mr. Delaney completed new agent training in Quantico, Virginia in 1991. He worked in the New York Field Office for nine years, where was assigned to the Manhattan office and investigated a variety of white-collar crime matters.

After serving in New York, Mr. Delaney was promoted to unit chief at FBI Headquarters in the Criminal Investigative Division’s Health Care Fraud Unit from July 2000 to December 2004. He oversaw the efforts of more than 400 investigators and managed a budget of more than $114 million. In this role, he was also a frequent lecturer on health care fraud at major conferences and training sessions.

From January 2005 to June 2008, Mr. Delaney served as assistant special agent in charge in the Miami Field Office. He managed division’s white-collar crime, cyber, and civil rights programs. In addition to this, he oversaw the efforts of special agents and intelligence analysts. While in Miami, the division dismantled criminal enterprises resulting in convictions of Washington, D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff, several county commissioners, and three police corruption rings.

Mr. Delaney is a native of Queens, New York. Prior to the start of his FBI career in 1991, he graduated from Sienna College in Albany, New York with a degree in accounting. He worked in investment banking at Banque Paribas in New York City and served five years in the U.S. Army Reserves, leaving as a first lieutenant. Mr. Delaney is married and has three children.

Corruption Ebbs as Iraqi Police Leadership Strengthens

By Tim Kilbride
Special to American Forces Press Service

April 19, 2007 – A firm commitment to professionalism and transparency from Iraq's political leaders are helping the country's growing civil security force perform well in "a highly challenging environment," a coalition training official said yesterday. British Army Brig. Gen. Rob Weighill, deputy commander of the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, told online journalists that, with 200,000 Iraqi police officers trained in the past two years, his organization is well on its way in its mission to "generate, train and sustain the Iraqi police forces," so that they can shape a security environment favorable to democratic establishment.

Iraq's overall civil security force - including local police, national police, and border, ports, highway and traffic patrols - is about 300,000 strong, Weighill said.

But sheer numbers are only a part of the game, Weighill explained. He said Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bolani has repeatedly made clear he values quality over quantity in building the force, particularly in relation to skills and rights training.

To ensure new police officers have the necessary capabilities to operate independently, police training has been largely standardized across Iraq's various police academies, Weighill said. He pointed to the Numaniyah police training center, southeast of Baghdad, as an example of how such facilities operate.

Numaniyah, Weighill said, has the capacity for 2,000 beds, roughly matched to the size of an Iraqi police brigade. Recruits who graduate the four-week program are typically sent out as a cohesive unit.

"They come, literally, straight out of Numaniyah, in brigade size, and get put into Baghdad, sitting alongside and working alongside their Iraqi police brethren" and the Iraqi army, Weighill said.

The general commended the "standard, tried, and now tested, police training program," but acknowledged room for further growth.

Respect for human rights remains a perpetual concern, Weighill said. Rights training has been a part of the Iraqi curriculum since 2003, but the issue has become increasingly germane amid Iraq's tide of sectarian violence, he said.

"This is an important aspect of their policing duty because it fulfills the vital requirement for them to understand and implement what it means to treat people fairly and with dignity and respect," the general said.

In the past, he noted, "a lack of leadership, a lack of training, and therefore an absence of support and trust between the police and the community" led to situations in which Iraqi police officers stood by while crimes were committed.

With a reinvigorated Ministry of the Interior, Weighill said, such behavior, along with more egregious cases of corruption, is no longer tolerated.

Minister Bolani "emphatically states he will not put up with corruption," Weighill said, noting that senior ministry officials have been removed in cases of nefarious activities.

The maturation of robust internal affairs and inspector general's offices within the ministry over the past two to three years has led to a swell of investigations within the force, Weighill explained. These offices are tasked with "identifying fraud, crime (and) corruption" and punishing perpetrators appropriately, he said.

In January, about 1,200 such cases were investigated by the inspector general's office alone, Weighill said.

"Contrary to popular belief - that is that the Ministry of the Interior and the Iraqi police are heavily infiltrated from the sectarian perspective - the work that I've done... would suggest otherwise," Weighill observed.

"Of course there are infringements of the law" and those are "dealt with in accordance with Iraqi law," Weighill said.

These examples of strong leadership from the ministry are crucial to maintaining professionalism throughout the ranks, Weighill said.

"Principally through police training, the leadership element within the Iraqi police, national police, is improving all the time," Weighill said. "If that leadership is strong, then by and large, the levels and frequency of criminality - whether it's taking bribes, whether it's involved in corruption, or indeed involvement in sectarian violence - tends to diminish."

To help ensure adherence to standards, ethics and protocol, the general said, the Iraqi police just conducted a full spectrum inspection of all 47 police stations in Baghdad.

The review highlighted that among other areas, police infrastructure, vehicles, and overall processes and procedures all need improvement, Weighill said, though he noted anti-corruption procedures are far tighter than in the past, especially relating to funding and personnel payments.

Management and administration of the police force stand to gain from the gradual introduction of digital information management systems, Weighill said. He predicted the systems could be in place by late 2008.

In the meantime, shortages of capacity within the police training regime have actually led to a temporary freeze on police recruiting throughout Iraq, Weighill said, though he characterized the hold as a positive sign.

"There's no shortage of volunteers," he said. "In fact, we've had to... place a three-month moratorium on recruiting simply because we don't have the capacity and the training establishments at the moment to deal with the numbers that are volunteering to join the police."

For the existing police training facilities and programs, progress is unlikely to be affected by the Iraq funding debate in Washington, Weighill said.

"We in the police are probably in a slightly better position than the Iraqi army," he said, "in so far as the money that is spent by the United States in support of the Iraqi police is a smaller proportion of those funds than is spent on the Iraqi army."
"What is interesting," Weighill added, "is that the Iraqi central government budget for the police in 2007 almost doubled from 2006, so actually the Iraqi government is contributing significantly to the way in which business is conducted."

That type of strong Iraqi government commitment is largely behind the steady improvement of the police force, Weighill said.

"I work on a daily basis in the Ministry of Interior building with people... who are becoming good friends," he said. They exert "an enormous amount of industry to try and ensure that the Iraqi police can operate and function effectively."

Weighill said close contact with the police force in his first two months in Iraq have reversed what were negative impressions of their capabilities and efficacy.

"I came out here with perhaps the view that prevails in the United Kingdom - I can't speak for the United States - which is that the Iraqi police are emphatically infiltrated with sectarian issues," Weighill said. "They're not trusted by the population, that they have difficulties in undertaking their tasks. I have found the opposite to be the case," he added.

"Pretty much every contact that I've had with the police is that these boys... and these women are doing a pretty good job in highly demanding circumstances," the general said. "And I think as you would say in your country, as far as I'm concerned, they're patriots."

(Tim Kilbride is assigned to New Media, American Forces Information Service.)

Article sponsored by Criminal Justice online leadership as well as police and military personnel who have authored books.

Police Officer Author and Publisher

Police-Writers.com, a website dedicated to listing state and local police officers who have authored books, added a police officer who in retirement has not only authored books but founded a publishing company.

Joseph Davis is one of the founders of LawTech Custom Publishing. LawTech publishes high quality textbooks, criminal justice field reference guides, promotional study guides and legal reference manuals. They have an extensive library in the areas of criminal justice, homeland security, investigation, forensic science, emergency management, fire science and emergency medical services. Moreover, their authors tend to be practitioners with real-life experience as well as stellar academic credentials.

Joe retired as a Captain from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (CA) after nearly thirty years of service. His commands included the Airport Operations Division (John Wayne Airport Police Services & Air Support Bureau), Operation Support Division (Emergency Management, County Communications Center, & Sheriff’s Communications Center), and the Central Jail Complex (Intake Release Center, Central Men’s Jail and Central Women’s Jails). He also served as the Chief of Police Services for the City of Laguna Niguel.

He has a Masters Degree in Public Administration, is a graduate of the California Command College and FBI Incident Command School, has authored or co-authored ten college textbooks and police training books, has had articles published in both professional and general publications, spoken at national conferences, and been interviewed on national radio and television.

His book, Report Writing for Law Enforcement” is designed to provide college students, entry-level police officers and criminal justice professionals such as experienced police officers with appropriate English language information and report writing techniques in a format that can be used on a daily basis.”

His book, Interview and Interrogation with Eyeswitness Evidence “is designed to provide college students, entry-level police officers and criminal justice professionals such as experienced police officers with comprehensive and in-depth information on the art and science of interview, interrogation and eyewitness testimony.”

Police-Writers.com now hosts 313 police officers (representing 135 police departments) and their 734 books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.