An Innovative Approach to Training Future Police Leaders The Chicago Police Department’s Executive Development Program for Sergeants

By The Police Executive Research Forum

  The 2019 Chicago Police Department Executive Development Program for Sergeants (EDPS) pilot training was part of a larger PERF initiative to promote leadership development within the CPD, support reform strategies, and address violence in Chicago. The multi-year PERF initiative was funded jointly by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Joyce Foundation. This project was carried out in two phases. Phase I provided CPD Command personnel with leadership and management training needed to manage change and better address the issues of crime and violence in Chicago. In the spring of 2017 and winter of 2018, PERF facilitated a Senior Management and Leadership Development Program for CPD Command staff members. Modeled after PERF’s Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP), this program was designed to quickly and dramatically boost the management and leadership skills of CPD leaders, many of whom were new to their current leadership roles. A series of day-long workshops for Command members covered topics such as organizational change, negotiation strategies, strategic communications, and developing leadership values and capacity. Phase II was the development and delivery of the EDPS, which was completed in the fall of 2019. This phase also included an assessment of the program and publication of this report.  

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum,2022. 16p.