The purpose of this research was to evaluate the success of the implementation process used by the Technical College System of Georgia, the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, and the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, to establish a Basic Law Enforcement Certification Program (BLEC) administered by the technical college system. The success of the process was determined by identifying the degree to which the process produced a program that met and sustained the operational expectations of the stakeholders. The need for this research resulted from the lack of such an evaluation within the implementation process in conjunction with plans to utilize the same implementation process to expand the BLEC program. Data for the research were collected through the use of a two-step semi-structured interview followed by on-site inspections and the solicitation of relevant manuals, policies, documents, and output data. Step one of the interview process consisted of a survey comprised of thirty items, which was distributed by e-mail in advance of the onsite inspection. A second set of questions for each academy was then assembled and administered during the on-site visit to explore issues raised by the initial survey responses. The data were then subjected to a two-stage analysis process wherein (1) scores were calculated for each academy that addressed the degree to which that academy had achieved and sustained the operational expectations of the stakeholder agencies, followed by (2) a comprehensive re-examination of the data from a programmatic perspective in order to reach a qualitative conclusion regarding the program’s success at achieving and sustaining the operational expectations of the stakeholder agencies. This evaluation found that while the implementation process was successful in producing a program that met and sustained the expectations of the stakeholders, the implementation process should be modified prior to utilizing it again to expand the program. The rubric used as the foundation of the implementation process should be modified to eliminate the potential for confusion resulting from inherent subjectivity. The findings and recommendations from this research could be useful for modification to the process and as a model for evaluating the resulting expansion.

The dissertation, "An Evaluation of the Technical College System of Georgia's Basic Law Enforcement Certification Program Implementation Process," by Victor G. Burke.