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Operation Bootstrap: A Corporate Law Enforcement Partnership

NCJ Number
132646
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 38 Issue: 10 Dated: (October 1990) Pages: 59-63
Author(s)
R Bocklet
Date Published
1990
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The provision of corporate training and expertise to police departments has proven to be both useful and cost-effective.
Abstract
In the mid-1980's, the State Association of Chiefs of Police turned to the corporate world to help train upwardly mobile law enforcement managers. The police need for training was explained to Fortune 500 companies, and they were asked to share their educational and developmental resources with the law enforcement community. The initial response was positive with companies such as AT&T, Burroughs, Boeing, Citibank, Monsanto, and Xerox participating. Today, the educational clearinghouse called Operation Bootstrap links 300 police departments in 40 States with about 70 corporations. In 1988, 829 law enforcement personnel attended free corporate management training courses. Subjects included problem-solving and decisionmaking, communication skills, conflict management, time management, and basic negotiating skills. The coordinator of Operation Bootstrap indicates that many police departments are revamping traditional, reactive policing methods into more proactive policing and that this change requires sophisticated training in the latest management techniques. One training program offered by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company focuses on influence. After completing this program, students are better equipped to build influence by establishing ground rules for greater efficiency, to use influence to generate ideas and arrive at correct solutions, and to sustain influence by the use of consensus rather than power to achieve results. Other examples of corporate training programs for police departments are noted, and the importance of diversified training for police officers is emphasized.