Saint Leo University Podcast: Moving Up In Public Safety Administration

Transcription

1 Saint Leo University Podcast: Moving Up In Public Safety Administration Hello. I'm Moore, the director of communications at Saint Leo University. Today with me I have Dr. Bobby Diemer, the director of the public safety administration program here at Saint Leo and Dr. Ernest Vendrell assistant director. We're here today to learn more about our two programs in this department, the (Master of Science in) Critical Incident Management program, and the Master of Science in Criminal Justice program. Dr. Diemer and Dr. Vendrell, why don't you tell us a little bit about the different programs in the Department of Public Safety Administration. The department has two programs. One is the Master of Science in criminal justice, and the other is the Master of Science in critical incident management. The Master of Science in Criminal Justice is for those individuals who are seeking a graduate program in understanding criminal justice. We have specializations in forensic psychology, forensic science, corrections, and legal studies. For the critical incident management I'm going turn to Dr. Vendrell. The critical incident management program is essentially an emergency and disaster management program. It's geared for any organizational setting. It applies to public sector organizations; it applies to private sector companies; it applies to nongovernmental organizations. So really it's a broad degree program that applies to a variety of organizational settings. Therefore when you consider that every organization needs an emergency planner, someone to engage in crisis management, someone that's well versed in the emergency planning process, then you can see quite readily that it is a broader focused degree program that has a variety of applications to it. Tell us about how the program got started; tell us a little bit about the history.

2 The program was started about nine years. There actually was no graduate program in criminal justice. A good friend of ours, Professor Barry Glover, who since then has passed away, was the individual who came up with the idea. I came into the program; I was hired to start the program. We started as a master of science in criminal justice and it was campus-based. And we started with about 34 students in the program. After the program went through two years, we did a program review, and students stated that they wanted a variety of classes. Then it was where you took a class we told you to take. So it was from the program review that we started adding the electives. Then the online started, and all of a sudden, the program basically moved from campus to online, because those working adults felt as though they could do better by going to school at home instead of coming to the university here on campus. So we had to close our campus program because we had no students, everybody went online. And what year was this that that happened? We started in And the program has morphed into several different areas. We started with a program where we told you what the classes were, where now you have actually four classes that you have to take; it's the core classes: ethics, leadership, public policy, and legal. Those are the four core classes for criminal justice. Then you, as a student, elect to take your specializations, or you can take six other classes to complete your degree. The nice thing about it is that you could theoretically get a master of science in criminal justice, say with a specialization in forensic science, for example, and then have a focus where you take two classes. So I have just now made my transcript with a master of science in criminal justice, a specialization forensics science and I focused in legal studies. So the student has a way of changing their program to fit what they are looking for. Well, also with respect to the criminal justice program, two courses have to be taken first. And the first one that must be taken is the ethics course, which is the CRJ 530 course. And that particular course introduces students, not only to the

3 ethical implications of the field of criminal justice, but also introduces the student to the writing style we use, which is the APA the American Psychological Association style of writing. So students get introduced to that, students get introduced to library resources, students get introduced to turnitin.com and that provides a foundation for students moving forward through the program. And the next course that's required is the leadership course, which is the CRJ 565 course. And that course focuses on leadership applications in criminal justice. And it really provides a good foundation for students moving forward. It reinforces that second course, reinforces some of the writing styles that are necessary in the criminal justice program, and also reinforces the resources that are available for the library, turnitin.com, et cetera. So it provides a good foundation for students moving forward. Excellent. So that's really interesting to know, and especially the online learning opportunity. Many individual's nowadays, as you said, are just trying to balance their work, family, and getting a college degree, so that's outstanding. So tell me, what type of student would enroll in either of these programs. Well, the students really come from a variety of backgrounds. We've got students that are currently in the military, active military personnel. We ve got students from the private sector. But the majority of our students are public safety individuals as well as military personnel. So criminal justice and critical incident management both have a lot of applicability, not only currently in their professional settings, but also looking down the road in terms of career advancement, perhaps what they're going to do after retirement, those sorts of things. So there really is a lot of applicability for both degree programs, both criminal justice and critical incident. Okay, very good, that's very helpful to know. Let me ask you this question, can an individual who does not have any law enforcement experience apply for any of these programs? Absolutely. Most of our students, do have some type of practitioner experience in either program. But we also have a good segment of individuals that are looking to broaden themselves. Because it is an academic program, because they are not in the field, they'll have to learn some terms. But for the most part there should be no issues and plus it's a good thing to have especially the emergency management,

4 because it's so applicable to any program. But no, that they don't have to have criminal justice or emergency background in order to come into the program. And if I can add one thing, actually for those students who don't have experience in the field, actually taking classes with students that are mid-level professionals and those that have a tremendous amount of experience, whether in criminal justice or in emergency management, actually broadens their perspective, so it's a win-win for everyone. That s great. And that leads me to the next question. A lot of these students might be working in the field or not, is an internship required as part of either of these programs? We don't have an internship on the master side. That is usually left for the undergraduate side. I know there are some programs that have internships, but they're normally attached to licensures. There is no licensure with criminal justice or critical incident management. What about experience? Do the students that enroll in any of these programs have to have any experience? No, they don't. And as Dr. Vendrell stated earlier, being mixed into a class where there are individuals, high-ranking individuals, whether they are with emergency management section or high-ranking with the field of criminal justice law enforcement, they learn more quickly because they're getting a different viewpoint. So tell me, if I was interested in this program, just share with me, what are the top two or three reasons, why would I want to enroll in the masters of criminal just program? Well, with either one of the degree programs, having the ability to be exposed to different perspectives really broadens your horizon. It enables you to critically analyze situations and to experience the perspective of other students in class. So it really creates an environment that engages students and really propels their

5 careers down the road whether it's presently in the professional setting or perhaps what their career goals may be in the future. The other is that in a lot of criminal justice agencies, a degree is sought after for promotion. So we have a lot of career professionals taking the masters program in order for promotion. And that's a one of the up-and-coming reasons for people taking it. And it's a good one. Absolutely. If I were to enroll tomorrow, how long would it take me to obtain my degree? The program is a two-year program. So an individual taking classes in the online setting would take one class every eight weeks. We have accelerated program for those that have time to dedicate, but that requires special permission from me as the director, and it's not advisable, because we hold a strict regard for academics and if a student becomes overwhelmed and receives under a 3.0 grade point average, they'll go on academic probation and potentially suspended. So the program was written for an active adult that has potentially a family, has a full-time career, and is seeking an education, and that's the program was written, and it's a two-year program. Tell me a little about the professors that teach these programs? Do they have work experience in the field, is that a requirement? If you could just tell us a little bit about the requirements that would be great. Well, I guess we would start off with the two of us. I'm ex-law enforcement, I spent 27 years with the Miami-Dade county police department, and really held a variety of positions with the police department. It was a great experience and it enabled me to network with a lot of different organizations from not only law enforcement, but the fire service, environmental crimes investigators, individuals from the military et cetera, et cetera.

6 So it was a great way to experience a lot of different organizational settings that are active in the public safety arena. So that's my background, and Dr. Diemer? And I'm still a police officer, but 28 years full time law enforcement, ran the state drug task force, was appointed to run a state agency. The key that we have, which is different from other universities such as research-based universities, is that in a research-based university, your faculty, for the most part, is textbook learned. They're experts on writing and publishing articles, writing books and they're experts in the field, but may have no practitioner experience. In our program all of our faculty have practitioner experience and the educational standing with their doctorate degree so that they could teach the program. We interview every one of the faculty members themselves, they go through a rigorous interview process, we look for individuals that have extensive experience in the area that they are going to teach, so that we feel confident that the information you're getting is today's information, things that are topic related, as well as, they can relate to not only the information, but also the curves that life throws. Many of our students are active in the military, or in the field of criminal justice, or in emergency management, and the professors that we have, the instructors we have, understand that if a hurricane hits the student may not be able to be in class, so they take that into consideration and they assist the student. I have right now students in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have sheriffs, chiefs, majors, heads of organizations, and we realize that not only personal but professional life gets in the way. So to make a long story longer to answer your question, they are, all of our faculty, except for one, there's one faculty member that has no criminal justice practitioner experience, and reason for it is he teaches research methods. But he worked with the FBI in doing analysis for corruption in New Orleans, so he has a quasi-policing experience. Well it sure sound like St. Leo University has hired very highly qualified professors such as the two of you and many others. Our students are very fortunate. Well, could you tell me a little bit about what is DRNC? It's the Democratic Republican National Convention. This was the brainchild of the faculty.

7 We held a faculty meeting trying to discuss how we could get the students to have a real-life situation in every class that they're going to take. So in our meeting, we sat down and we decided to come up with a theme. It's a central theme that starts with their first class, the ethics class. They are introduced to a Democratic Republican National Convention, they're given background information on it, and then every class that they take has a question associated with the DRNC. If they take an ethics class, and there will be an ethical component of the DRNC. If they take a leadership class, they'll be a leadership component. It may be developing the command staff for providing security to the Democratic Republican National Convention. If it's in our critical incident management specialization, they may be doing the operational plan for how they would bunker down the convention to prevent terrorist situation. Forensic science would have a component that talked about evidence being seized at the convention, and how what they're learning -- is applicable to real life situations. So we start with one theme, we run it through all the classes, so at the end the student can realize each one of those classes I took can be applied to a real-life situation. If you think about it, every large-scale event has a policy component, has a leadership component, has ethical considerations, has operational planning considerations. So it s a great way to tie in all of our courses into the centralized theme that is interwoven throughout the entire program. I understand once our students have gotten through a majority of their courses, and towards the end they have to complete a capstone course. Could you tell us a little bit about that for each of the programs? Capstone course is a little different in each of our programs, so I'll speak about the criminal justice. The capstone course is the last course a student takes. Instead of being 8 weeks, it's actually 16 weeks. It runs a traditional semester. It starts either in spring one, summer one, fall one. It's called an apply project, the student puts themselves in a position of being a consultant. So at other universities where you have a dissertation or a thesis, you have a hypothesis to prove or disprove. What we want to do is add a component for students to better the field of criminal justice. So I'll give you one example. A husband and wife came through the program, and in the great state of Pennsylvania, if you made an arrest of an individual and the

8 individual confessed to you, you had to be before magistrate within a certain time period so that the confession could be introduced in the evidence. The problem is if it was on a weekend and a blizzard hit, the judge couldn't get to the courthouse, and the time could've run out. So they found a grant. They put video cameras in judges homes and at the booking section. And now it's called first appearance video booking. They don't have to go to the courthouse anymore; the police officer will take the defendant to the jail and they get their first appearance. The project made national news when they introduced this program. We had another student write on the potential use of red light cameras for the city. The chief of police liked his project, took the project and submitted to the city commission. And they now have red light cameras in that town. So the capstone project idea doesn't have to be sensational, so long as it improves the field of criminal justice. The apply project is 15 pages, and people say, "Oh, that's easy." No it's not. In order to get 15 pages, you have to do 300 pages worth of work. Because it's got the clear, it's got to be concise and it has to be to the point. No administrator is going to want to read 200 pages worth of work. So, it's easy just to type. This is really trying to keep it clear. And a very good project, we've had great success with it. The contrast in the critical incident management program, is instead of it being six credit hours, it is three credit hours. So it is over an eight -week term. And the types of projects that have been developed over the years have really been phenomenal. The focus is to identify an organizational problem and then come up with an intervention for an organizational improvement. So to provide an example, one of our students works for a sheriff's office in North Carolina, and his particular organization has a very good protocol in place for active shooter scenarios. However an adjoining jurisdiction, which was a smaller jurisdiction, did not; they didn't have the personnel, didn't have the resources, didn't have the expertise. So he developed a joint planning protocol with this adjoining jurisdiction. He came up with a training day where he developed all the different components, with all of the learning objectives, and then actually put together the different components of this joint exercise, not only with smaller adjoining jurisdiction, but with all of the adjoining jurisdictions in that particular location.

9 So it was a phenomenal project because it not only enhanced the capabilities of smaller jurisdiction, but it also led to increased networking, increased communication, increased collaboration with all of these different law enforcement organizations in that location. So it was a great project. Either of these degrees, can they be transferred outside of the state of Florida, and is there specific program accreditation? The accrediting body that Saint Leo University operates under is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which is SACS. So our degree programs are regionally accredited. They are recognized not only here in the state of Florida, but throughout the country and internationally. So certainly it is a degree program that is very reputable and one that has been in existence for some time. And they are continuing to grow in prominence, not only here but across the country as well. Will students who graduate and complete their degrees be qualified to teach? SACS requires that professors have 18 credit hours in a particular discipline. So a student that gets a degree in criminal justice or in emergency management and they have those requisite hours certainly would be able to teach in a degree program at another university or even at Saint Leo. So certainly it's something that can be used for teaching down the road. That's terrific. Another option for our students here at Saint Leo once they complete these degrees. What are the current trends, the hot topics in this field in criminal justice? There are many. One of the things that we pride ourselves in is trying to stay on top of the curve. For example, three years ago, we started a human trafficking course before it really was on the forefront. You know, 80s was drugs, 90s was gangs, 2000 terrorism, 2010 is human trafficking. These are buzzwords and these are problems that the criminal justice profession has. But they don't go away. It's just a new thing that has come up and three years ago we started the symposium on human trafficking here on campus, which is extremely successful. We do classes in workplace violence, which is, unfortunately, in the news, a lot. We have a class that goes to Israel. We're the only university that I'm aware of that

10 sends their students with this private company that has police officers from all over the United States to Israel where they are trained by the Mossad. They are shown about how Israel bunkers down the airports, bus stations, and restaurants when terror situations happen. It s a phenomenal opportunity. We have a college learning at sea program we started about eight years ago, which is a college class on a cruise ship, and people say, it s a great way to learn. But you know, myself and Dr. Vendrell and all of our faculty, we're all working adults. We went to school and we went to work. And it was hard work, but we knew we had to get it done. So we decided that we would put a college class on a cruise ship. We mandate 15 hours of classroom on a cruise ship, and we normally do that when it's at sea. And then they continue with a blended program with a faculty member, and that has been met with great success. We offer summer institute on campus. We have programs in our centers where we offer the masters program when we do a lecture series. So we have a lot of different topics such as informant handling. When Rachel's law on informant handling hit the state of Florida, we provided information on informants. So we stay ahead of the curve, and with our faculty having the experience they do, it helps. I think, some of the reasons that we are able to attract such outstanding, diverse students here at Saint Leo is because you are offering some really unique opportunities to get the college degree in criminal justice. And if I can have one thing about critical incident management, as we've seen in recent years, disaster events are increasing, not only in number, but in level of severity. So you've got all of these natural hazardous events. We've had acts of terrorism that have been quite tragic. There have just been a number of technological disasters, not only here in the United States, but also across the world. So critical incident management has grown tremendously. As we previously mentioned, it's essentially an emergency and disaster management degree program. And in light of everything that has occurred, in recent years in this arena, it s a degree program that has become very prominent, it's one that s going to be applicable to a lot of organizational settings. And one where students really can apply these critical knowledge and critical incident management, not only in the professional work setting but in other settings as well moving forward.

11 I guess in wrapping up, I've learned so much about these outstanding programs in our public safety administration department. So tell me, what's next? What's on the horizon? We want to stay ahead of the curve, and we try to do that with providing innovative programs. Let me digress for a second back to the start of the program in 2004 and We had a push; many universities were looking at homeland security degrees because it was the buzzword. Terrorism was the buzzword. Dr. Vendrell and I, along with our faculty, saw that having a homeland security degree is a good degree -- so don't get me wrong -- but it's not going to be sustainable. So we started the critical incident management specialization. So whether it's an overturned tanker on the interstate that explodes, to a terrorist situation, to a disaster situation of a hurricane, tornado, or even an active shooter, this program provides the student the information needed to handle all types of situations. From there we developed the Master of Science and critical incident management degree program, which Dr. Vendrell has spearheaded because he has the emergency management background and the prerequisites in criminal justice. So we try to always stay ahead of the curve, and that's why we added forensic science specialization, legal studies, corrections. We ve decided to look at another area that we feel is in need of training, and that's the area fire science. So right now we re committed to looking at providing a specialization within the critical incident management program, with a specialization in fire science. On the criminal justice side, we're starting to offer classes and hopefully have a specialization in criminal investigations. We're looking at international terrorism, and international crime is one, were looking at environmental crime to add to it. So what we're doing is we're broadening the base so that students can take classes of interest. And I think that's made Saint Leo very successful because students are coming and getting educated in the areas that they feel will help them in the future.

12 Well, this was a very, very interesting conversation. I learned a lot about our wonderful programs that we offer here as part of our criminal justice department, at Saint Leo University Dr. Diemer, Dr. Vendrell, thank you very much for sharing with us and it was great conversation thank you. I appreciate you having us, thank you. # # #