Bel Air Police Sgt. Robert Pfarr recently graduated from the School of Police Staff and Command (SPSC) at Northwestern University, completing the 10-week Staff and Command program held in Sykesville.
The program, which ran Feb. 9 to April 24, was implemented by the Center for Public Safety in 1983 and has graduated more than 14,000 students both nationally and internationally. Pfarr was a student in SPSC Class 374th which accommodated a total of 35 students for the 10 weeks.
The School of Police Staff and Command provides upper-level college instruction in 27 core blocks of instruction and additional optional blocks during each session. The major topics of study include: leadership, human resources, employee relations, organizational behavior, applied statistics, planning and policy development, budgeting and resource allocation.
Each student is academically challenged through written examinations, projects, presentations and quizzes in addition to a staff study paper that are all required parts of the curriculum. Upon successful completion, students may be awarded six undergraduate credits from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
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 Bel Air Police Department anticipates a variety of benefits from Pfarr's attendance at this program. Many of the program's graduates go on to achieve a variety of leadership positions within their respective agencies.