IMPD leadership program to continue

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A program aimed at developing stronger leadership among police officers will continue in Indianapolis next year.

Indianapolis Public Safety Director Troy Riggs, Fraternal Order of Police President Bill Owensby, and IMPD Leadership Academy Alumni President Roger Spurgeon appeared together at FOP headquarters Thursday, announcing a full year of new funding for the IMPD Leadership Academy.

The program helps train officers on leadership skills through real life scenarios. It includes a “lessons learned” training curriculum where critical incidents from Indianapolis are studied from a leadership perspective. The course also requires reading assignments, writing exercises and critical thinking analysis.

Five classes—or about 10 percent of the department--have now completed the four-week course.

“It develops better character, better leaders, which is better for the community, better for our department,” said IMPD Deputy Chief William Lorah. “And, it is an opportunity that is afforded to all members of our department, regardless of rank.”

“It's a very, very good collaboration between labor and management, and it's really one that's unique across the country,” agreed Ownesby. “This is a very a unique situation, and we're proud to be affiliated with it.”

Participants in the program have come from across Central Indiana and as far away as Canada, IMPD said.

"What's remarkable about this is that the officers, through their FOP, came to me and said--we want this,” Riggs told 24-Hour News 8. “They said - we want to be better leaders. We want this training. We spend a lot of money on training our officers, and a lot of what we do is operational - training them to respond. What this does is give them another layer.”

Each leadership class costs the department about $15,000, Riggs said.

IMPD hopes to enroll enough officers for two classes in 2013.