The M.S. in Law Enforcement & Public Safety Leadership program at the University of San Diego has developed a new transfer credit opportunity for graduates of the Police Executive Research Forum’s (PERF’s) Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP) program. This partnership between USD and PERF creates a streamlined pathway and incentive for law enforcement professionals to pursue a master’s degree.
The PERF SMIP Program is a three-week course that provides senior police executives with intensive management training and focuses on the most pertinent issues facing law enforcement today. It is designed for mid- to upper-level police executives who aim to lead police agencies.
Through a process called credit validation, graduates of SMIP will now be able to turn this professional training into 6 units of graduate-level academic credit in the nationally ranked M.S. in Law Enforcement & Public Safety Leadership (MS-LEPSL). The MS-LEPSL program is an online degree that has served more than a thousand law enforcement professionals with a leadership-focused curriculum that develops practical skills in communication, technology, change management, community engagement, and data fluency.
“The MS LEPSL program is overjoyed to partner with PERF’s SMIP program, a longstanding, highly regarded program that prepares law enforcement leaders for the challenges of this dynamic profession,” said Erik Fritsvold PhD, the academic director and founding faculty member of the MS-LEPSL program. “SMIP graduates are precisely the type of students that will benefit the most from, and contribute the most to, the cutting-edge graduate education offered by the MS LEPSL program.”
PERF’s SMIP program now joins USD’s five other academic credit transfer partnerships, including the FBI National Academy, FBI-LEEDA Trilogy, California POST’s Command College, San Diego County Regional Leadership Institute, and California POST’s Sherman Block Supervisory Leadership Institute. Transfer credit partnerships allow law enforcement professionals to earn credits toward their master’s degree through these highly regarded and academically rigorous leadership training programs.
“In two decades of working in the field of public safety, I have never participated in any program more progressive, cutting edge, and forward-thinking than SMIP and LEPSL,” said Jarron Jackson, the Assistant Vice President for Johns Hopkins University Public Safety and a retired Captain with the Baltimore Police Department. “As a student of both programs, I am confident that this partnership will form the blueprint for building the future leaders of public safety. The ability to apply 6 units of transfer credit toward the completion of USD’s nationally ranked master’s degree is really great news for all SMIP graduates.”
This transfer credit opportunity is available to any law enforcement professional who has successfully completed PERF’s Senior Management Institute for Police program within the last five years. There is a $79 per unit fee for the credit validation service. SMIP graduates interested in obtaining transfer credit can learn more online.
