Partners in Planning – Canadian Association of Police Educators

Pracademics: Bridging the gap between academia and police training”

One of the objectives for OALEP is to provide training and development opportunities for planning professionals in the public safety industry. It makes sense that police educators, as well as law enforcement planner’s, partner, collaborate and learn from each other. As an example both organizations have to continually bridge the gap between where we currently are and where we need to be. One of the ways in which the Canadian Association of Police Educators have provided training opportunities is through our recent national conference.

The 2018 Canadian Association of Police Educators (CAPE) National Conference was held in Chilliwack, British Columbia at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Pacific Region Training Centre, June 24-29th, 2018. The conference theme was “Pracademics: Bridging the gap between academia and police training.” The Executive Board of CAPE was thrilled to bring together a number of outstanding national and international speakers to discuss this theme and to provide the most current research on a number of related topics. It was an exciting opportunity for CAPE members to learn from experts across the country and beyond how to improve how police training and how it is delivered. CAPE and our partners, the Canadian Police Knowledge Network (CPKN) and the Canadian Society for Evidence Based Policing (CANSEBP) share a commitment to improving the quality of how our police officers are educated across the country, and this commitment is growing.

After 29 years of being directly involved in police training, one of the things that I am still excited about is the fact that police educators across the country from British Columbia, through Quebec to the Atlantic Provinces have continued to demonstrate a strong desire to constantly improve the quality of training delivered to police officers. CAPE provides this opportunity and is unique in that it consists of police service training representatives along with university and community college criminal justice program researchers, professors, administrators and other law enforcement support organizations. These diverse perspectives allow us to link research academic criminal justice programs with cadet/recruit training to help bridge the gap between institutions’ current programs and the every changing demands that the public expects of their frontline police officers. The dialogue on building and sustaining an evidence based approach continues to revolve around the question, “How do we go about doing that”? One of the ways is to ensure both uniform and civilian members continue to attend conferences like CAPE and numerous other organizations offer.

We are excited and looking forward to the Ecole Nationale de police du Quebec and the Ville de Quebec Police service co-hosting our 2019 conference in Quebec City on June 4-6, 2019. Whether you are a police leader, educator, trainer, course designer, planner, administrator or officer, you will want to attend next year’s conference. Our website will have details in early 2019 (http://cape-educators.ca/category/announcements/ )

Peter Shipley
President
Canadian Association of Police Educators