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OTS, Montgomery Police Academy exchange perspectives

  • Published
  • By By Airman 1st Class Alexa Culbert
  • 42nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. --  Leaders from Officer Training School and the Montgomery Police Academy exchanged perspectives during the police academy's supervisory course March 15, 2016, in Montgomery, Alabama.

Capt. Kris Walker, OTS chief of training, participated with the police academy course as a way to further the integration of teaching points in each of the organization's curriculum.

Walker also used this as a chance to gather material for the OTS and police academy leadership consortium.

The leadership consortium invites the police academy to the OTS campus to receive leadership training similar to what the OTS cadet's receive. The consortium includes various courses on leadership, supervisory duties and conflict management and team building exercise at OTS's leadership reaction course, Project X.

As a way to help strengthen both academic facilities, OTS and the police academy are exchanging ideas and giving a different perspective on leadership.

"We want to make sure that we keep a great relationship with MPD and we want to make sure that we tie in the education principles," said Walker. "Anything we're doing at Air University, we want to make sure we share that knowledge, and we don't have all the answers in the world, so that is why we want to continue to reach out to the MPA and encourage them to come out and share their knowledge. You never know what you are going to find until you see what's out there, and that's what we're doing now," said Walker.

Walker says that having the civilian perspective will also benefit their instructors in the long run by enabling them to tie in non Air Force related issues during their courses. He says that much younger cadets are entering and is worried that a lack of work experience limits their point of view, but if they can pull-in experiences from different career fields, that could make their instructors that much more credible.

Lt. Stephen Lavender, MPA Training Bureau commander, said that the relationship between the MPD and Maxwell is one he's excited to have and looks forward to what they can learn from each other.

"Having the relationship between the MPD and the Air Force is kind of unique. They have the Air Force Academy and we have the MPD Academy, and it's like collecting ideas from each other to become better in both places," said Lavender. "We see it as a very healthy involvement and it keeps the relationship established ... and just knowing that we can lean on each other on an educational standpoint."

With the new outlook, Walker hopes that the leadership consortium could extend beyond OTS and MPA. He would like to see the Airmen with the 42nd Security Forces Squadron involved to get more of the military versus local law enforcement perspective, as well as the other schools within Air University. He added that the more open it is, the more it benefits everyone.