After completing a 14-month program, Bucyrus Police Chief Neil Assenheimer has earned a Certified Law Enforcement Executive, or CLEE, designation.

Assenheimer was one of 30 CLEE participants honored at a graduation ceremony Feb. 3 at the Ohio Highway Patrol Training Academy in Columbus.

“I’m always interested in improving and bettering myself and gaining new skills to help me be a more effective chief,” Assenheimer said. “I was like that my whole career; I always wanted to improve and learn new stuff.”

The course is co-sponsored by the Law Enforcement Foundation, Inc., and the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, according to a news release from the Bucyrus Police Department. An Ohio Department of Public Safety grant also supported the program. Instructors include noted faculty members at universities across the Midwest and consultants to business and industry.

“It was quite the program,” Assenheimer said.

Ethics, guiding principles among topics covered

Topics covered included change management; ethics; division mission and guiding principles; interpersonal skills; human resources and team facilitation; police legitimacy and procedural justice; practical leadership models for law enforcement executives; strategic planning; police resource allocation and budgeting, and organizational risk management.

Sessions take place about once every two months, usually with two classes per session, Assenheimer said. “You’d be there for two days of instruction, and then the rest of the time, you were back working on your assignments,” he said. Course materials include 12 books, plus an extensive amount of handouts, some of them 50-60 pages long.

“It was definitely a lot of reading and preparation that we had to do, and then some of the classes had a pre-assignment that you had to complete before you attended the class — and then there was a post-class assignment as well, ” he said.

Participants were selected for the program by meeting set standards in experience, formal and continuing education, as well as professional-related experience, according to the department news release.

Story continues

Benefits individuals, agencies, communities

“The Certified Law Enforcement Executive Program promotes professional development, benefiting not only the individuals but also the agencies in which they work and practice and their communities,” according to the news release. “It is designed to elevate the standards of excellence for law enforcement executives.”

Assenheimer said the course helped develop his interpersonal skills, allowing him to better communicate with both his employees and community members.

The vision mission and guiding class principles was helpful, too, he said. “That really is about what your organization stands for; what your values ​​are,” he said. The budgeting class will help him “be a better steward of the money that’s budgeted to me.”

Assenheimer said he wants the community needs to know its police chief will continue to work hard to better himself.

“I’m going to work hard to be a better leader for my department; I’m going to work hard to be a better leader for the community,” he said.

[email protected]

419-559-7263

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Neil Assenheimer earns Certified Law Enforcement Executive designation