Backgrounder:  ISIS Development and Timeline

ISIS began in late 2001 as an experiment in executive development.  In the weeks following the events of 9/11, concerns about the readiness of the Canadian police leadership community to adapt to new global realities had moved to the forefront.  Senior members of that community were seeking a rapid and experiential development model for police leaders and they asked CACP Executive Advisor Chief Trevor McCagherty (Ret.) and CACP Consultant and Adult Educator Norm Taylor to develop a proposed solution.  Among the challenges set out were:

• the program would need to acknowledge and build upon the wide array of police executive learning already in place, but be distinctive enough to offer something new and innovative for senior, succession-ready leaders who had already completed most or all of the conventional educational options available to them
• the program must be global in nature and deliberately designed to take leaders beyond the North American context with which they are familiar
• the program must be comprehensive and academically rigorous 
• to respect the operational realities of its audience, the program should exploit mixed-mode delivery options, including elements of online e-learning, classroom working sessions, expert speakers, research guidance, and global field studies
• the program must produce meaningful findings and new insights of significant value to the broader Canadian criminal justice system
• the program must target a diverse mix of executives, both sworn and civilian, representing all of Canadian policing (recognizing that smaller services may be less able to participate without assistance)
• the program would require a business model that would enable it to remain self-funding for the association

 

IBPRP 2003

McCagherty and Taylor assembled a national team of prominent police educators and academics to build upon the basic architecture they had conceived for the program and which had gained the approval of the CACP Board in August 2002.  After an intensive design process, the first 12 participants began the International Best Practices Research Project in March 2003.  They presented their final report at the CACP Annual Conference at Halifax in August of that same year.  Some immediate and lasting outcomes of the IBPRP 2003 experience are as follows:

• the program demonstrated to the leadership community that this form of mixed-mode problem-based learning (PBL) was indeed both distinctive and viable
• attempts to mediate between the PBL intent of the program and more conventional assumptions about essentialist police learning proved distracting to the effort – a stronger commitment to more deliberate and overt PBL was indicated
• the IBPRP research featured a relatively open-structured survey approach largely due to the experimental status of the program, and the 2003 findings took the form of general “Challenges for Canada”
• the IBPRP findings on Cultural Competency set the stage for a series of national forums over the next 2 years, and also informed the work of the Law Enforcement Aboriginal and Diversity Network (LEAD)
• several participating members and agencies began ongoing and lasting liaison work with the IBPRP’s global host agencies, including intelligence-sharing and subsequent exchange visits
• the IBPRP proposals on national security and organized crime introduced new language and concepts that continued to inform the work of several Canadian agencies and CACP committees
• the IBPRP observations on Integrated Policing significantly informed and advanced the work of the CACP’s governance file, and served as a precursor to the research theme for ISIS 2006 (see below)
• the IBPRP program achieved the cost-recovery and general business goals of the association
• a number of program design and procedural enhancements were proposed by the IBPRP participants, and several members played an active role in the re-conception of the ISIS model
• building on recommendations from the 2003 team, CACP national office staff implemented effective procedures to facilitate the execution of the program and to streamline the field study logistics
• the BMO Institute for Learning in Toronto was identified as a more suitable executive facility to support the intensity of the residential workshops

 

Based upon these outcomes and the generally favourable response of the original participants and their sponsors, the CACP Board made the decision to continue with the development of an ongoing program.  McCagherty and Taylor were asked to carry forward with a redesign with additional and ongoing support from CACP Executive Director Peter Cuthbert.  Their proposal for the Institute for Strategic International Studies model received Board approval in August 2005.

ISIS 2006

The CACP’s announcement of the ongoing program received a strong national response and by January 2006, 17 participants had registered from 11 agencies.  The timeline of the new program was expanded to enable three workshops instead of the IBPRP’s two, with two week-long preparatory sessions and another post-study week for analysis of the findings.  A separate and budgeted writing session was also built in to enable a sub-team to complete the work of the full group prior to the annual August conference.  To better prepare the participants for their studies, the early online study portion of the program featured theoretical learning and discussion on the nature of problem-based learning and its underlying constructivist philosophies.  An Executive Advisory Group was established by the CACP, and this group presented a more focused research challenge to the 2006 team.  The first of three workshops featured a wide array of expert inputs from policing, government, and academia on the themes inherent in the team’s challenge.  During the second week, with the assistance of IBPRP mentors, the team settled upon several study sites in Western Europe and they received enhanced cooperation from the RCMP’s international liaison network to facilitate more effective and efficient site visits.

The recommendations of ISIS 2006 took on a much more direct and somewhat controversial tone.  The ideas derived from the European experiences in police restructuring were initially unsettling to many within the Canadian leadership community.  However, this stimulated considerable debate and ultimately contributed directly to the CACP’s current proposal for a National Framework for Progressive Policing in Canada (NFPP) which will go before the membership in August 2008.  As with the IBPRP, several members of ISIS 2006 have continued liaison activities with their overseas connections.

Feedback from the ISIS 2006 participants and their sponsors was universally positive, and the CACP Board approved the continuation of the program on a bi-annual basis.

ISIS 2008

In January of this year, 21 participants from 13 agencies began ISIS 2008, and the current program has followed closely on the model of the 2006 program.  The Executive Advisory Group presented the significant and timely challenge of Solutions to Policing Capacity in Canada to the 2008 team.  Based on their preliminary research and diverse inputs from academics, policing experts and community members ranging from business executives to politicians to high school students, the ISIS 2008 team adopted a broad systems perspective on their challenge and rejected the temptation to treat it as a question of numbers.  This led the team to commit to approaching the 2008 research following a qualitative, sociological model. 

As a further enhancement to the 2008 program, more overt research coaching was introduced to the program with two aims in mind: to prepare the team at a level that would ensure their interpretive research would meet high standards of validity and authenticity; and, to set the stage for an additional scholarly publication of their research results in addition to the usual products targeted to their peers in policing.

The 2008 team decided to organize into five sub-teams and developed study plans to span a total of 11 nation-states.  After their field studies, in May the full team achieved consensus on the themes that would shape their final products.  The report writing sub-team articulated the final findings and recommendations which are being presented in August to the policing community, and which promise to stimulate considerable dialogue across that community and with its governing authorities.

The ISIS 2008 team has already identified a number of follow-on research topics, some of which could form the basis for the next ISIS team, and others which may lend themselves to smaller scale research projects for other police leaders. 

ISIS 2009

The CACP recently announced its intention to proceed with ISIS 2009, departing from the bi-annual schedule.  This decision came in response to two major factors: predictions that the police community may be unable to support such a program in 2010 in the midst of national staffing challenges brought about by the Vancouver Winter Olympics; and, growing demand and enthusiasm for the continuation of the ISIS program.  ISIS 2009 is currently accepting nominations, and the research theme for the 2009 program will be announced this coming January.