A Salisbury Township Police Department officer was lauded for graduating from a center for public safety.

Salisbury Township Police Sgt. Charles Whitehead completed a program at Northwestern University Center for Public Safety.

Salisbury Township Chief of Police Donald Sabo presented Whitehead with a plaque now displayed in the township police department facility.

The presentation was made at the Jan. 11 Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners’ meeting.

Whitehead graduated from the School of Police Staff and Command at Northwestern University. Whitehead completed the online 22-week staff and command program held in Evanston, Ill., May 1 through Oct. 1, 2023.

The program, implemented by the Center for Public Safety in 1983, has graduated more than 21,000 students nationally and internationally, according to a news release from Northwestern University Center for Public Safety.

Whitehead was a student in SPSC Class No. 549, which accommodated 25 students for the 22-week period.

The School of Police Staff and Command provides upper-level college instruction in 27 core blocks of instruction and optional blocks during each session.

The major topics of study include: leadership, human resources, employee relations, organizational behavior, applied statistics, planning and policy development, budgeting and resource allocation.

Each student is academically challenged through written examinations, projects, presentations and quizzes in addition to a staff study paper, which are required components of the curriculum. Upon successful completion, students may be awarded a total of six units of undergraduate credit from Northwestern University.

The Center for Public Safety was established at Northwestern University in 1936 to expand university-based education and training for the law enforcement community.

The center broadened its original objective to provide courses and programs in police training, management training and executive development.

Sabo said the Salisbury Township Police Department anticipates a variety of benefits from Whitehead’s attendance at the program.

Many of the program’s graduates go on to leadership positions in their departments