Brandon Denker

Criminal Justice 1010

1 May 2016

Police Education

Education has and always will be a very important part of our lives. It is a
stepping-stone that will lead us to our next opportunity. Education by definition is:
Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills,
values, beliefs and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the
next through storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, or research. (1) That being said
I do believe that it is of the upmost importance for all people to have or want to obtain an
education. If you plan to work in an area that requires a certain expertise you must show
that you have accomplished preliminary requirements in order to practice and use your
skillset. Teachers go to college, so do doctors and businessmen and women. This should
be no different for police officers that are upholding the laws of which educated people
have written.
The point of education is not only for your own self-benefit but also for the
benefit of others. When it comes down to being a police officer you play the role of
someone who must uphold the law. You are an example of justice and of the law itself
and everyone is watching. You need to be balanced and understand a little bit of
everything, because you are not just dealing with one type of person on a daily basis. One
day you could be explaining a parking citation to a sixteen year old and the next day to a

rocket scientist. Nonetheless you must be able to accurately deliver the citation based
upon your understating of the law. You must be educated to be taken seriously by both
parties. By completing collegiate level of certification 4-year military service it proves
your level of commitment to understanding law enforcement thus eliminating distrust or
unneeded resistance from a civilians perspective.
According to a study done at the University of Michigan arrests, searches and the
use of force are the big three decision-making points for police officers. (2) Through out
this study at the University of Michigan two groups of people were observed, four year
educated police officers and non-educated police officers. There were few common
denominators observed in this study. The ones most interesting being that of the big
three (2) making arrests and performing searches seemed to show little to no difference
between four year graduates and non graduates. But in conclusion the study showed that
educated officers used act of force 56 percent of the time. (2) While un-educated
officers used acts of force 68 percent of the time. (2) This leads me to ask the question
why? I believe that simple things such as maturity and better decision making abilities
come with spending time in a four year education system.
Another form of education that you can receive as an alternative to going to a
four-year college institution is the military. The U.S military can and will provide a form
of training and education to young men and women wanting to become police officers
that I believe is and should be considered a credible form of training to become a police
officer. Though I do think that there needs to be some requirement of graduation and or
honorable discharge from the military before being able to become an officer. Once again
this is an alternative to a four-year education, but nonetheless it is an education.

In todays world and in recent news we have seen acts from police that have
caused quite the uprising. Events such as the Fergusson police scandal and the recent
issues in Baltimore. These are acts of individuals and do not represent the entirety of
police, but as all of us know through taking this class police are often clumped into the
same group as other police officers. So what happens when one bad cop makes a bad
decision? It ruins it for all the rest of the good cops around him/her. What happens after
that bad decision has been made? Well as we have seen there is pubic resistance to the
police. Thus leading to active and harsher force from the public and the police. A recent
article from the Huffington Post outlines Ferguson Police are excessively armed,
untrained wannabes. (3) How do you give credit to the officer who was driving around
your neighborhood writing parking tickets for the last ten years the same credit and
respect when he is walking down the street heavily armed with automatic weapons and
riot gear? In my mind the answer is simple. If he or she has the credential needed to be a
police officer such as military experience he or she has earned the right to be in that
position. This eliminates the public opinion and scrutiny that unfortunately police officers
are continuously subjected to. As we learned in this class, not everyone is fit to be a
police officer.
Changing the standard to having bachelors, degree or active honorable discharge
from the military is definitely a step in the right direction for a requirement of police
officers. Education comes in many different forms. At the age of 18 your are hardly ready
and able to make proper decisions for yourself. Proper time is needed to understand the
world of which you live in and how it operates. Becoming educated enough to enforce
the law amongst society is also something that takes time and proper education to

appreciate. Seeing how we require a college education for most all-professional careers I
strongly believe that there should be no difference for law enforcement.

Work Cited

1.Education." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia

Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 1 May. 2015.
2. http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/cops-and-college-dopolice-need-book-smarts-21852
3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/police-militarizationferguson_n_5678407.html