Albert Lea Police Lts. J.D. Carlson and Darren Hanson recently graduated from the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association’s Academy for Chief Law Enforcement Officers (CLEO and Command Academy) at Camp Ripley.

The four-day, state association course of instruction is designed to update and refresh law enforcement executives with their leadership responsibilities and resources in their profession. The purpose of the academy is to help new and veteran police department face challenges behind the desk and on the street.

“The job of running a police department is more than just commanding a police force,” said Harlan Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, which sponsored the academy. “It’s about managing relationships in a community.”

Since criminals and their tools and technologies are becoming more sophisticated, he said, public safety departments must stay current with professional services. Police chiefs learned at Camp Ripley how their departments manage critical incidents, strengthen department plans and resources, maintain public data and stay ahead of policy requirements.

The CLEO Academy is an intensive training session taught by Minnesota-grown and seasoned police chiefs and legal staff. In addition, the academy covers topics such as ethics, community initiative planning, budgeting, complaint handling, and state and federal mandates.

Chief Mona Dohman of Maple Grove and vice president of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, told the chiefs-in-training at a panel discussion: “Our responsibility as chiefs is to know what’s going on in our cities. Our goal is to reduce or eliminate crime. As chiefs, after spending many years in law enforcement responding to service calls, we must ask ourselves daily, ‘How is our department going to respond? What is best for our community?’”

Dohman said that even with the 2009 state budget shortfall in local government aid, public safety and police departments must preserve and budget for the events in their communities that allow their police forces to connect with citizens.

The Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association consists of more than 500 law enforcement managers for local, county, state and federal agencies. Police chiefs total about 350 of these professionals. The association was formed in 1954 to enhance the delivery of public safety services, critical training and legislative initiatives with the objective of maintaining professional law enforcement in Minnesota communities.

More information about the association is available at www.mnchiefs.org.