Applied Public Safety Leadership: Leading in Uncertain, Complex Times

Course Description:
This two-day (16-hour) professional development course is designed for current and emerging leaders in law enforcement, the fire service, emergency management, and homeland security. The course is instructed by a four-member faculty team, all graduates of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS), collectively bringing nearly 100 years of public safety experience across multiple disciplines and levels of leadership.

The course focuses on practical leadership principles and their application during routine operations and high-consequence critical incidents. Instruction emphasizes how leaders make decisions under pressure, manage uncertainty, and sustain organizational effectiveness before, during, and after major events. Through case-study-based presentations, students will examine real-world leadership challenges drawn from public safety operations, critical incidents, and complex emergencies.

A central theme of the course is trauma-informed and empathetic leadership. Participants will explore short-, mid-, and long-term leadership tools designed to support personnel wellness, mitigate operational stress, and promote resilience within agencies. Topics include communication under stress, leadership presence, organizational trust, and maintaining accountability while caring for personnel impacted by cumulative and acute trauma.

The course also introduces the responsible use of artificial intelligence in public safety leadership. Instruction will address how AI tools can serve as force multipliers to enhance situational awareness, decision support, administrative efficiency, and strategic planning—while remaining consistent with ethical, legal, and organizational standards.

Why Attend:
This course offers public safety professionals practical, experience-driven leadership strategies to strengthen agencies, support personnel, and lead effectively through the most demanding operational challenges.

Strategic Public Safety Communications & Public Information Officer (PIO) Operations

Course Description:
This Oregon-based, 20-hour intensive course (delivered over 2.5 days) is designed for law enforcement leaders, public information officers, command staff, and public safety administrators responsible for managing communications during routine operations, critical incidents, and emerging crises. The course is taught by a multidisciplinary instructional team with deep, real-world expertise in public communications, journalism, prosecution support, and homeland security.

Instruction is led by a Naval Postgraduate School professor with nationally recognized expertise in social media, homeland security, public communications, and strategic messaging, who has advised federal, state, and local agencies on policy development and communications during sensitive and high-risk events. The faculty also includes an Emmy Award–winning journalist with 20 years of newsroom experience, a chief district attorney investigator who previously served as a PIO for a large police agency, a current public information officer from a major Oregon sheriff’s office, and a Naval Postgraduate School CHDS graduate who focuses on effective information flow between investigators, command staff, and PIOs during major cases.

Course Topics Include:

• Foundations of public safety communications and PIO roles

• Media relations, message discipline, and press conference strategy

• Social media risk, opportunity, and real-time engagement

• Communications during critical incidents and emerging events

• Legal, ethical, and policy considerations in public messaging

• Coordinating investigators, command staff, and PIOs

• Case studies from law enforcement, prosecution, and media perspectives

Why Attend:
Participants will leave with practical tools, policy-informed strategies, and firsthand insights to strengthen public trust, reduce organizational risk, and deliver accurate, timely, and effective communications during the most challenging public safety situations.

Violent Crime Investigations

Course Description:
This intensive, Oregon-based law enforcement training is designed for detectives and investigators assigned to major crimes, gangs, and complex violent offenses. The course is instructed by two seasoned law enforcement professionals, each with over 20 years of sworn experience. One instructor is a veteran sergeant with extensive background in major crimes, narcotics, and gang investigations, including supervisory responsibility on a serial homicide investigation and multiple high-profile violent crime cases. The second instructor is a nationally recognized subject matter expert on criminal gangs, with extensive experience working alongside federal partners on long-term, multi-jurisdictional gang and violent crime investigations.

Course Topics Include:

• Investigative strategies for complex violent crimes

• Advanced gang identification, structure, and criminal enterprise analysis

• Linking offenders across incidents and jurisdictions

• Coordinating investigations with federal, state, and local partners

• Case management, documentation, and investigative decision-making

• Lessons learned from serial and multi-offender investigations

• Officer safety, ethics, and lawful investigative practices

Participant Expectations:
This course is designed for sworn law enforcement personnel assigned to investigative duties. Students are expected to actively participate, engage in case-based discussions, and apply critical thinking to real-world investigative scenarios. All instruction is grounded in constitutional policing, Oregon law, and best practices.

Why Attend:
Agencies sending detectives to this course will benefit from practical, experience-driven instruction focused on improving investigative effectiveness, enhancing interagency collaboration, and strengthening the ability to manage and solve complex violent and gang-related crimes.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.