Participants in the Administrative Officers Management Program enroll in five academic courses for a total of fifteen credit hours. All of these carry upper level undergraduate or graduate credits identical to those earned by every other student at North Carolina State University. While it is the prerogative of the university or college to which one transfers to accept credits earned elsewhere, it is our experience that the credits earned in this program are readily transferrable. The academic courses are:

PA 545: Legal Issues in Law Enforcement Administration
3 credits
Instructors: Mary Easley, Esq. and Ike Avery, Esq.
This course seeks to enable the participant to assist a law enforcement agency in maximizing organizational effectiveness while minimizing unnecessary exposure to civil and criminal liability. It focuses on high-risk liability areas, with a special emphasis on personnel issues, civil rights of both the public and agency employees, handling of discipline and internal affairs, and issues concerning the use of force.

PS 312: Intro. to Public Administration for Criminal Justice Managers
3 credits
Instructor: James R. Brunet
This course introduces the participant to administration in the public sector using examples from law enforcement administration as well as other agencies of government. The course examines formal and informal organizations, the administrative process, personnel practices, administrative responsibility and accountability, budgeting, intergovernmental relations, the political environment of public administration, and ethics in administration.

PA 525: Organizational Design & Behavior for Criminal Justice Managers
3 credits
Instructors: Charles K. Coe and Michael L. Vasu.
This course examines major conceptual frameworks developed to understand behavior in the organization setting. Topics stressed include dynamics, communication, socio-technical systems, work design, and organizational learning. The emphasis is on applying theories and concepts to criminal justice organizations. The course employs the case study method to assist participants in recognizing the problems faced by different types of organizations as well as the solutions to those problems.

PS 415: Criminal Justice Administration
3 credits
Instructor: James R. Horner
The focus of this course is to assist participants in the application of up-to-date management theory into practical solutions to problems faced in their agencies. To that end, the course is designed around three units: assessment of organizational culture; assessment of leadership style on a variety of dimensions; and a series of experimental workshops drawn form a simulated police department. The theoretical framework provided by the self and organizational assessment is applied to a variety of problems - both operational and management-related - that reflect current issues in law enforcement

PS 498: Management Skills and Practices
3 credits
Instructor: Steven K. Straus.
This is an experientially based course that is designed to teach its participants practical and effective law enforcement management skills, such as listening, problem solving, goal setting and team management. Participants apply these skills by conducting and participating in assessment centers conducted by fellow AOMP participants. Management Skills and Practices is designed to complement other AOMP courses and to enable officers to apply effective team management practices when they return to their departments.

PS 598: Applied Police Research
3 credits
Instructor: Deborah Lamm Weisel
This class is designed to improve students’ understanding and use of research on public safety, and to encourage police managers to participate in and produce research. The course will focus on the evolution of research in criminal justice, and consider the main theories of criminology and their implications for law enforcement policy and practice. The course will describe how research agendas are formed, and examine the primary methods and designs of research, data sources, and limitations of contemporary research.