Mandated, Progressive Leadership Development for all Texas Peace Officers across their careers

Society in the United States is changing rapidly, and the demands on law enforcement are higher and more complex than ever before. The demand to solve complicated social issues in multicultural communities with limited resources is the challenge modern law enforcement faces. The only way to effectively meet these modern challenges is to capitalize on the human resource of the individual peace officer. Leadership development is a training concept traditionally reserved for supervisory, command and executive level law enforcement personnel due to a long-standing "top-down" management style. This leadership design is no longer able to meet the demands of modern society. Modern community policing models require line level officers to take a community leadership role in helping communities solve problems. Communities must be empowered to help themselves through law enforcement officers adopting a servant leader philosophy that produces transformational leaders in the communities. To achieve that goal, all peace officers must evolve into formal leaders through mandatory, progressive leadership development at strategic intervals throughout their careers. The cost-benefit of investing in this decentralized form of police leadership will increase public trust, reduce burnout in officers and allow for the type of flexibility, innovation and transparency that modern policing requires