Local law enforcement take part in three-day leadership training by FLETC

Over the course of three days, about 56 personnel from the Guam Police Department took part in leadership training.

Spearheaded by instructors with the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the purpose  was to deliver education, share stories, and bring lessons learned from a global policing perspective

“We covered how to lead, how to lead yourself, how to lead others, regardless of what rank you have on your collar. leadership is an action, not a position,” said senior instructor, Kawika Lao. 

Lao from the FLETC, along with Sgt. Justin Witt with the Louisville Metro Police Department, is on island providing critical leadership training. The three-day training was offered to over 50 command staff and civilian personnel with GPD.

“It doesn't matter where you're in law enforcement, dealing with the community, being a part of the community, it is inevitable unfortunately in this profession, definitely it showed with the police officers on Guam, that there is going to be a tragedy that happens on the island. through learning leadership principles and applying those principles, they are able to take care of this community, take care of each other, and take some of the things they learned here and put them into practice,” said Witt. 

As KUAM reported, a retention and recruitment study was conducted by University of Guam students at the request of the GPD Chief. 

A portion of the survey focused on leadership, according to Lao, the study was discussed on the first day.

“I read the report, I said, we are gonna talk about something that may cut close to the bone. what we focused on is what is within your power to control or influence to mitigate what came out in this report. and what was encouraging to me,  is who do we have in the room? We had the chief of police in the room, along with all his commanders,” said Lao. 

In the study, it noted 40% of officers believed they were not valued by leadership.

“When people perceive like 'Hey, I'm not being valued. It's a relationship. And everybody in that relationship does have a relationship to strengthen that connective tissue,” added Lao.

Training wrapped up Friday afternoon and they wanted to end with a message to the island community.

“If you see a police officer, that is a part of your community, stop them, shake their hand, say thank you,” said Litt. 

“Everybody that you know in your life, you expect that they will give their life to defend someone that they know and love. But everyone wearing that uniform, they know at some time they know at some time they will be expecting to risk their life not only for strangers, not only for those who can't thank them but honestly for people that don't like them,” Lao said.