Help me convince my bosses...

Here's the deal. I work for a local PD, I'm a civilian in an admin position. Part of my position is being the contact person for the dept with regard to car seats questions and appointments, etc. We have only 2 certified CPSTs and my cs knowledge, because of my ongoing research and passion about the subject, has now met or exceeded theirs (in part because they do no ongoing reasearch beyond their regular recert for CPST and don't really care about the subject).

They (my officers) feel strongly that I be certified, they appreciate that I filter all of the appointments beforehand so they aren't wasting time as they have precious little of it. The division we work in has just the 2 of them and they've got alot on their plates. Our division supervisor agrees that I should be certified but the upper administration of the dept denied my last request to attend the class because it could be a 'union' issue. (The officers are in 1 union, I'm in another.)

We've all spoken to both the union (who says no issue) and another class was just posted. I'd like to try again to convince them to let me go. I can't go on my own for 2 reasons; 1 is I simply don't have the vacation time to cover the 4 days of the class in addition to my 'mommy' responsibilities for daycare's vacation days, etc. The 2nd is if I go on my own they're going to want me eventually to use the cert for their benefit...at least my officers and my immediate boss will...but I won't get those days back.

I'd like to convince them that letting me go (even if I have to pay for it, I have some connections with the dept holding the class so I may be able to sneak in for just the SK fee and no local fee) is of great benefit to the department.

Any suggestions? Arguments? Liability stats??

Thanks in advance!

I wish I had an answer for you. The best argument I can think of is that if you were certified not only would you have another tech to do checks, but ti should help thier liability as far as education goes. You could also take more of arole on maybe that would free upo another employee o do something else. Sorry not much help.

Can you get a letter from the other union stating that it is not an issue with you being certified? It sounds like a great opportunity for you and your entire office so figure out what the issues are and get letters or other people to speak up for you stating that those issues the few are worried about are not to worthy of preventing your certification.