Police leadership in 2045 : the value of education in developing leadership

Policing remains one of the few occupations in which sworn leaders enter as recruits and work their way to the top. This poses some unique challenges and opportunities. Many of the leaders of 2045 are being recruited and inducted into policing today, and as such it behoves policing to have a sense of what these future leaders will need so that they can be best prepared for their future roles across their careers. This requires police organizations and their current leaders to have the strategic foresight to understand how the challenges facing their organization will morph over the next 20-30 years. And it requires an understanding about how best to support future leaders for these roles. This article explores the role of education in achieving this. By no means a panacea for leader and leadership development, embedding education throughout the career of the future leader may serve the dual purpose of equipping the workforce as a whole to engage in leadership, while ensuring our future leaders have the high-level critical and creative thinking skills that complex problems require. Ensuring our police organizations value education and learning, however, is a cultural challenge that today's leaders need to address.