What Cities Want in Their Chiefs
I find that professional development is not a well defined term in itself. While education and training are the obvious answers, the question remains. What training? What education?
I have long suggested that the best answer can be found in job announcements for Chief of Police positions throughout the country. If you plan to have a full career in law enforcement, what better way to guide your professional development than by looking at what cities want in their Chiefs?
I recently pulled three announcements representing small, medium, and large agencies currently hiring. The pattern is consistent and worth paying attention to.
Here is what the job market is telling you right now.
Small Agency
• 5 to 10 years of law enforcement experience
• Supervisory or command level experience required
• Bachelor’s degree preferred, experience may substitute
• Executive training such as FBI National Academy - desirable
• State certification required
Even at the smallest agencies, executive training credentials are showing up. Certainly something worth paying attention to.
Medium Agency
• 10 years of experience, with 5 years at sergeant level or above
• Bachelor's degree is a firm requirement
• Budget management experience expected
• Executive training - ex. FBI National Academy preferred
The degree preference is becoming a requirement for medium size agencies. If you do not have one, this would be a good place to start.
Large Agency
• Master's degree expected
• 5 or more years of executive command leadership
• FBI National Academy or comparable program required
• Experience leading in diverse communities explicitly required
• Salary ranges up to $230,000 to $240,000
At this level the bar is high and the competition is national. Everything on this list takes years to build. None of it happens by accident.
What this means for you
While we may not all strive to become Chiefs of Police, the requirements for that position are applicable to any command role. I would even go so far as to suggest that this level of education and training serves well beyond retirement.
Job announcements are a roadmap. Find one for the position you want someday. Read it. Then work backwards and ask yourself what you need to start doing today.
The roadmap already exists. Now you know where to find it.
This piece first ran in The Edge, my newsletter for law enforcement professionals. Subscribers get it first.
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