Mundelein police sergeant graduates from command school
The Mundelein Police Department is pleased to announce the recent graduation of Sgt. Patrick Gara from the School of Police Staff and Command at Northwestern University.
Gara has successfully completed the 10-week Staff and Command program held in Lake Zurich from Sept. 10, 2012, to Jan. 18, 2013. This program, which was implemented by the Center for Public Safety in 1983, has graduated more than 9,000 students both nationally and internationally. Sergeant Gara was a student in SPSC Class 336 which accommodated a total of 32 students for the 10-week period.
The School of Police Staff and Command provides upper-level college instruction in a total of 22 core or mandatory blocks of instruction and utilizes nine additional optional blocks of instruction during each session. The major topics of study include: Management and Management Theory, Organizational Behavior, Human Resources for Law Enforcement, Budgeting, Staffing Allocation and Personnel Deployment.
Each student is academically challenged through a total of 18 written examinations, projects, and quizzes in addition to two research papers that are a required part of the curriculum. Upon successful completion, students may be awarded a total of eight units of undergraduate credit from Northwestern University in Evanston.
The Center for Public Safety was established at Northwestern University in 1936 with the specific goal of expanding university-based education and training for the Law Enforcement Community. Since its inception, the center has broadened its original objective and now provides a variety of courses and programs in the area of police training, management training, and executive development.
The Mundelein Police Department anticipates a variety of benefits from his attendance at this program. Many of the program’s graduates do go on to achieve a variety of leadership positions within their respective agencies. Currently, over 750 graduates hold the title of chief of police and 39 of the 50 directors of state police agencies are also graduates of this program.