Detroit police to be trained in management principles

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says he wants to see the city’s police department run more like a Fortune 500 company, and 20 Detroit cops on Monday will begin training toward that end.

Duggan and police officials Friday announced the launch of the “Detroit Police Leadership Academy,” an executive development program that the mayor said will help the department operate more efficiently.

Classes commence Monday in the Wayne State University Mike Ilitch School of Business for Detroit police volunteers ranging in rank from lieutenant to assistant chief. Five members of the Wayne State Police Department also will take the five-month course.

Participants who complete the program will earn 16 college credits, or half of the credits needed to earn an MBA. Deloitte LLP helped develop the curriculum.

During a press conference at police headquarters announcing the program, Duggan said basic business practices can be applied successfully to police work.

“Basic management principles using data has helped drop the crime rate significantly, and it has to do with how we deploy our resources,” he said.

“For instance, it was taking an average of 90 minutes to book a prisoner in the detention center,” Duggan said. “If you have 90 minutes of an eight-hour shift just dropping a prisoner off, that’s a large chunk of your day.”

Duggan said police were able to whittle the time transporting prisoners to 20 minutes by tweaking the process, including sending reports to the detention center ahead of time.

“We want to have a whole senior leadership team that has classic business management training,” Duggan said. “I’m still not convinced we’re using our resources as efficiently as we could, and this training will help that.”

Wayne State is giving the city a 50 percent discount on the course, which costs $11,000. “The city will pay $5,500,” Duggan said.

Assistant Chief Lashinda Stair, who signed up for the program, said she thinks it’ll help her do her job.

“I believe we’ve developed a program that will amplify our efficiencies,” she said. “As law enforcement professionals, our responsibilities go far beyond policing, and I believe this will not only help us day-today, but to move forward as a department.”

The goal is to train 100 officers over the next three years, Duggan said.

ghunter@detroitnews.com

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