Police Officer To College Degrees: A Case Study

Many businesses require their upper-level leadership to have a degree. The police departments are now starting to change to that style of education hiring. The hiring process can be very complicated because the police department wants to ensure that they are hiring the right person that fits their department. Choosing the right applicant for the job is an important decision because of the cost of the equipment, uniforms, training, and probation period because this is an investment in the departments future (Dempsey, & Forst, 2016). Because the police departments are requiring their officers to have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree for an entry-level position will make the department more completive, but the department should still consider

Throughout the story a criminologist, David M. Kennedy talks how citizens who want to be a cop are hired without being taught psychology, anthropology, sociology and criminology and other classes that will prepare them for the job. This is true, I believe people who want to work in this profession should at least have some type of college education. In the text book “Police in America” written by Steven G. Brandl explains, police officers who have

Does obtaining a degree in a particular field grantee you a successful career within that field? As for African Americans, will most criminal justice graduates have a career in their field of study post graduation? How long will it take to achieve a career in the criminal justice field? The theme of this research is to examine the advantages of obtaining a criminal justice degree and how effective it is within individuals’ careers within the field of criminal justice. Through this research readers will be educated on the effectiveness of having a criminal justice degree. Current undergraduate students will grasp an idea of whether obtaining a criminal justice degree is useful or not. This particular subject area has been research and examined for years.

Law enforcement scholars have long debated the impact higher education has on police officer performance. Many police scholars have analyzed police officer performance through productivity; job satisfactory ratings, turn-over rates, commendations or disciplinary department sanctions received, and compare such performance measures to officers’ education level.

In order to become a police officer you must go through a very rigorous recruitment and selection process. The minimum requirements to be recruited include but are not limited to twenty one years of age, valid driver’s license, and no prior felony convictions. All candidates must be able to pass a written and medical exam, interview, physical agility test, and psychological screening. Although not in every case there are police departments which now require certain educational standards. Most of the time it is simply a high school diploma however now they are moving forward to include college credits. Although education may not assist the officer in all aspects of his or her job, it may increase an officer’s knowledge of legal issues. Legal knowledge is integral to the job of a police officer. (Grant & Terry, 2008)

Many police departments offer incentives for police recruits with college educations. For example, the Los Angeles Police Department offers police officers with an associate’s degree or higher that have completed their probationary period a $70,136 salary compared to a $67,505 salary for an officer without a college degree. It can be argued that a three thousand dollar increase in salary is not enough incentive for college educated officers. Reason being is the continuing rising cost of college education to the point of the value of going to college decreasing. The income gap that rising tuition costs creates for police officers can be supplemented by the promotional opportunity that a college education provides police officers. Paynich argues

The debate on the value of higher education for police officers continues to be one of the most persistent and pervasive issues in policing. Although there are several different interpretations of what constitutes a professional police officer there appears to be a consensus about the need for professionalism in policing. Researchers have attempted to measure performance through such variables as officer attitude, discretion, ethics, cynicism, decision-making, and use of deadly force. Despite the different measures of performance used, several studies have reported a positive relationship between educations and "job performance" found that college-educated officers consistently received higher performance ratings from supervisors. College

The Virtual Police Department (VPD) only required a high school diploma or equivalent to be qualified police officer. The department does not care and even discouraged personnel not to go college. The VPD culture believed that experience was the best way to educate the police on the force. With most of the senior officers who achieved promotion based on merit and experience. With education at the VPD at a very low state of less than ten percent with two-year degrees, of which were achieved through an agreement with the local community college based on their police training. Even with the push, for a bachelor degree requirement that was derailed because it would make the current commanders pool ineligible for promotion. This affected the culture because the organization believes to assign commands to commanders based off skills, talents, and personal preference not based

In this scenario as the Chief of Police this student would impose significant action as opposed to termination. The individual in question has a virtually clean record and on paper the individual in question is considered to be a good police officer. Good police officers are needed. Although the act that was committed is not something anyone should be looking at while in a work. It is against all companies’ policies that do not deal in the matter of pornography and is unacceptable. In the military when an individual does something distasteful he or she is not terminated for their actions, but they are held accountable and punished according to the rules and regulations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice also known as the UCMJ.

Aside from those difficulties, another challenge supporters of this issue face, is a difference of opinion regarding the courses or programs necessary to raise the educational standard for police officers. For instance, professor and chair at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Maria Haberfeld, feels that critical thinking and strong communication are “skills that can be learned” to help police officers do their jobs (Townes, 2015). She also believes that courses “specifically geared toward the police profession should be the standard” (2015). Mike Aamodt, author and Radford University professor, has agreed with the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement Administration (COLEA) and the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals that the educational standards for police officers should be raised, and contends that other law-enforcement organizations have recommended that law-enforcement agencies revisit their educational standards. However in contrast to Haberfeld’s assessment, Aamodt asserts “a criminal justice degree is no more beneficial than degrees in other areas… and instead, research should emphasize why people with a college degree tend to be better officers” (Townes, 2015).

Police Officers are not adequately trained. There is no unified standard to becoming an Officer. Each precinct develops their own set of requirements and trainings based on the location, population, and need for their city. According to discoverpolicing.org the minimum requirements to be eligible for hire is, to prove U.S citizenship, be at least 18 years of age, have a high school diploma, a valid

I do not believe that statement to be true as I am a prime example. I have a degree in Anthropology and History, but have many more felony arrests and uses of force than most officers. However, I have not received one complaint as I have fully embedded myself in the community and they know I would never treat anyone wrongly. The offenders who resist usually end up apologizing to me afterwards because I know them very well. I believe that an educated officer will be in less excessive force incidents, but not necessarily less use of force incidents as those who work hard to locate felons will have more that fight

The value advantages for police officers to have college experience/education because then they'll have the textbook experience and also the hands on experince as well. If you just go to the police academy you'll only get what those teachers in expect you to be and what they're teaching you, you'll only remember what they taugh you when you're finished and you won't have any other education if you go striaight into the academy at the age of 18. Once you get into the academy, the programs can range from a few weeks to months and it covers all the bases of what its like working for the law enforcement but it's most likely that people that've already been through there four years of school will then go into the academy because you can't be a police

Ivancevich, J., & Konopaske, R. (2013). Human resource management. (12 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Due to the recent front-page exposure of some of our police officer’s salaries, the city has demanded that we reduce our current staff’s overtime drastically and hire new police officers. In response to the city’s notion we have received a detailed memo from the police officer’s union representatives citing that they are not feeling as if the immediate reduction in overtime is the right approach and have lined out some potential negative actions that could be taken. Both parties involved feel passionately about this topic but consequentially this is causing more of a negative impact on the current police force and the community than I believe was intended. Outlined in this memo we will discuss ways to work through conflict in the workplace and talk about what we will be seeking in the new candidates that we bring on board.