College Education: The Path to Better Policing?



College Education: The Path to Better Policing?College Education in Criminal JusticeTyson Lee11/5/2013Tyson LeeCriminal Justice 1010College Education: A Necessity? A college education is something that is highly sought after and needed for a multitude of jobs and careers. For a police officer though, is it something that should be required, or would it be something of a hindrance, a barrier to those that would otherwise be a great fit for police work? As reported in a Bureau of Justice Statistics study from 2003 outlines, “83 percent of all U.S. police agencies require a high school diploma, but only 8 percent require some college. Only 1 percent of police agencies require a four-year college degree.” CITATION USD03 \l 1033 (US Deparment of Justice) As someone currently going to college and hoping to get their degree, I was heavily leaning towards the “needing a degree” camp coming in. After researching and reading more and more about the subject though, I found the answer to be more layered and complex than I had originally thought. Looking at the positives of requiring a college education, a recent study found that police officers with some college education were much less likely to resort to force than those with no college:“Up until now, the studies have been much more anecdotal, indicating that education may matter," said William Terrill, an associate professor of criminal justice at Michigan State and a co-author of the study. "We found that a college education significantly reduces the likelihood of force occurring. The difference is real. It truly is because the officer was more educated, not because the suspect was more resistant.” CITATION Wil10 \l 1033 (William Terrill)Perhaps college degrees should be required if only to avoid multi-million-dollar malpractice lawsuits, as well as the resulting destruction of police reputations that seems to occur after these situations. On the other hand though, it found no difference in arrests or searches of suspects. What it did seem to suggest was that those police officers with just a high school diploma or equivalent were much faster to say “I'm the law and I have the authority to make you do it, and I'm going to put my hands on you and make you do it.” CITATION Mel10 \l 1033 (Burns) College graduates, on the other hand, emphasized problem solving and critical thinking, without resorting to force. This makes sense, as you would need both of those things while in the process of acquiring your degree. Another point I found was that as police officers are interacting with the general public with powers unmatched anywhere else, should they not require a college degree to match that equivalent power? There is perhaps no other job in the country that allows so much power and that deals with such serious aspects such as civil rights, with so little education required. Louis Mayo, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Police Association for College Education stated the following:“Only the best professionally qualified person should have the ultimate-and awesome-police power of summarily depriving a person of liberty or even life. And only such a person has the tools to deal with the many problems that afflict a community. A college degree, as many authorities have pointed out, is the mark of professional qualification.” CITATION Lou06 \l 1033 (Louis Mayo)Detractors, on the other hand, state that police work is not something that can be learned or acquired from college. So called “street smarts” are said to be more important. Police work is said to more of a “craft” than a profession that should be learned out on the street and not in the classroom.Many police agencies find it hard to require a college degree though, if only for the simple fact of how many police officers are currently employed in the US. There are about 700,000 state and local police officers across the nation. Requiring a college degree for every one of those positions would be a monumental undertaking that would all but gash the pool of eligible candidates that could become officers. Some police agencies do present incentives to lure higher educated candidates. “Los Angeles' approach to police recruiting and pay is typical of most big cities. The 9,000-officer department pays new cops with four-year degrees about $55,200, roughly $4,000 more than those who meet the basic requirements of a high school diploma or GED.” CITATION Kev06 \l 1033 (Kevin Johnson) While most departments give higher pay to college educated recruits, they have avoided requiring them for a multitude of reasons. One of those, which were outlined above, would be the difficulty in getting enough eligible candidates to even interview. Related to that, there are also fears that the stating salary of a rookie police officer wouldn’t be attractive to college graduates. Going along with diversity, many police forces have to look at recruiting enough minority officers, especially in increasingly diverse urban areas. With that already being hard enough as it is, requiring a college degree would almost certainly make reaching that goal undeniably harder. As a sort of trade off, some police departments have tried to match the percentage of officers with a college degree with that of the city they are located. In conclusion, what I ultimately think in the end is that requiring a college education for police officers would not only benefit the officer and the police department he is a part of, but arguably the general public as a whole as well. What is not in question is that a college education is one of the most fulfilling and life-changing things you can do for yourself. Requiring a college education can only mean positives things for police departments as a whole. "Irrespective of experience, college is going to give you bang for the buck right out of the gate. By having an education, you're actually speeding up the process of experience and you're getting the effect of better policing in the form of less force." CITATION Wil10 \l 1033 (William Terrill) This is not a change that can be enacted in haste and without a lot of work, time, and money though. It would also undoubtedly be a huge commitment to follow through with it from police departments across the nation. If that is accomplished though, then I believe that everyone will benefit. Robert Friedmann, a criminal justice professor at Georgia State University, wrote in an essay. "Police officers need the (college) degree, not only for what it brings to individual officers and their departments, but also for what the degree brings to policing." CITATION Kev06 \l 1033 (Kevin Johnson) Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY Burns, Melinda. Cops and College: Do Police Need Book Smarts? 2010. 2013 < Johnson, USA TODAY. Police agencies find it hard to require degrees. 2006. < Mayo, Ph.D. "Support for College Degree Requirements: The Big Picture." The Police Chief 2006.US Deparment of Justice. "Bureau of Justice Statistics - Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics." 2003.William Terrill, PhD. "The Effect of Higher Education on Police Behavior." 2010. The Police Chief. <;. ................
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