RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - On April 13, Rancho Cordova Police Department (RCPD) Lieutenant Rob Patton was honored as a Distinguished Alumni at the Sacramento State University Division of Criminal Justice’s 50^th Anniversary Gala.

The gala theme was “50 Years of Justice Education Leadership” and honored nine distinguished alumni who have graduated from Sacramento State University with degrees in Criminal Justice. Lieutenant Patton was selected as an honoree for creating the Sheriff’s Leadership Program (SLP) at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

Lieutenant Patton has been with the Sheriff’s Department for 20 years and worked in a variety of assignments. He joined RCPD one year ago as the Day Shift Watch Commander supporting patrol officers in their role responding to 911 calls, critical incidents and traffic accidents.

While he was working for the Sheriff’s Department, Lieutenant Patton decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership from National University and graduated in 2014.
“I realized at that time that my passion and purpose in life was leadership,” said Lieutenant Patton. “Once I started to look within at what I was good at in my career, I realized a lot of things that I was doing weren’t working, and I needed to create change from within.”

Once he graduated with his Master’s Degree, Lieutenant Patton created SLP, which is open to his colleagues at the Sheriff’s Department. The goal of the program is to help his colleagues learn, lead and grow as people and employees so they are prepared for leadership opportunities in their current roles, specialized assignments and supervisory positions.

SLP is a three-month program that includes two days each month of facilitated instruction and group dialogue, which covers a variety of leadership methods, styles and concepts. Twenty-five employees are selected to participate in each program, and SLP is now in its sixth class.

In addition to teaching in SLP, Lieutenant Patton travels throughout California with the California Peace Officers’ Association teaching eight hour courses on Transformational Leadership at other law enforcement agencies.

Lieutenant Patton was humbled to have been honored by Sacramento State University for his leadership roles at the Sheriff’s Department and RCPD.

“It’s humbling to have been honored because I have struggled my whole life until I joined law enforcement,” said Lieutenant Patton. “Leadership is not about you, it’s all about you. It’s about how you affect change in yourself before affecting change in people and teams. In other words, be willing to look within in order to have the impact you want on others.”

Please join RCPD in congratulating Lieutenant Patton for this honor!