Jesus Aular | Criminal Justice 1010 | Salt Lake Community College | Spring 2016

Do police officers Need A College Education?

To understand the question we first need to understand what do police officers are
for. As we have learned during tis class about the origin, roles, and purpose of police
officers, is an understatement that their general focus is based on protect people and
property as well as law enforcement in our communities.
Do we think is important to required that the people that protect us on the daily
basses have a college education? Society is broken into groups in witch each groups
perform roles in society, these groups are required to have more than a college education;
so if doctors, architects, teachers, engineers, politicians, law and policy makers are
required a degree to certain level in order to hold society to an order why not the people
that enforce our laws?
On a different note what image do police officers portrait to citizens and why? On
a research conducted by Keli Goff she states that many people identify then self with the
following statement Every time Ive ever been pulled over I remind myself Im dealing
with a high school dropout with a gun. Raising concerns on the matter of how to become
a cop as well as what kind of people do it, and how easy it is. In my opinion Ive known
many police officers that are kind, compassioned and smart. Ive been helped by officers
who fit that description. But I also know there are officers who are not. There are those
who chose their profession so they could protect and serve, while others chose it because

theyve always been bullies and being a police officer is one of the few professions in
which you appear to be rewarded for being one.
Another reason as to why should police officers have college education has to do
with the fact that in my opinion it is not seen as an actual profession, and its sad because
this men and women put their lives at risk every single minute they are on the clock for
our safeness, and that same is the reason some people are discouraged on becoming
officers, due to the high risk their lives are exposed. In support to this view Keli Goff
states, The sad truth is that we as a society dont expect, nor do we encourage, our best
and our brightest to become police officers. Young people who are perceived as smart and
compassionate, and who exhibit leadership qualities are encouraged to go into politics,
the non-profit world, possibly business, or perhaps law, but only to become lawyers.
Rarely, if ever, are they encouraged to wear a badge.
Another research done by Matthew D. Bostrom also supports this by a study with the
help of the Saint Paul Police Department, concluding, law enforcement should become
more like a profession, and one of the fundamental aspects of professional occupations
was that they required education beyond high school. Their reasoning led the
commissions to recommend that educational requirements for police officers be raised
from a high school diploma to a college degree. The overarching thought seemed to be
that if law enforcement officers became more professional, then the unprofessional
actions of law enforcement officers would be curtailed.

During this research an argument was found against whether or not police
officers should have a college education so I would like to confront this argument

that comes from some instructors who criticize the recruitment of officers who have
college degrees, in an article by Mathew D. Bostrom in which one of his instructors
stated that at the beginning of taking a fresh new officer he would advise "Forget about
what you learned in the academy, kid. Things are different in real life."
To this matter I agree that most new people are pairs with people that have seniority and
lots of experience, but who is to say that you can not combine techniques, data and any
form of education with experience? I think if anything would make a great officer.

So why college educated officers are better than the ones with just a high school
diploma? Having a college education will not guarantee ones success as a police officer,
but it will provide more tools for that officer. Given that police officers deal with public
in a much broad and deep than most other professions, they should be able to know a
little more than basics in order to serve our community. We are in the middle of a very
fast evolving age with lots of great tools like technology but with that a lot of new
challenges that could be solved by being more prepared and having even more prepared
people on tasks. High-profile police incidents have sparked protests from California to
Florida. The incidents include the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black
teen, in Ferguson, Missouri, and the case of Eric Garner, who died after being put in a
chokehold by police in New York.

Another argument was found in a study, which appears in one of the issue of the
Journal of Criminal Justice Education, Terrill and fellow researchers analyzed survey data
from 2,109 police officers in seven mid-sized to large police departments across the
United States.

While none of the departments required a four-year degree, 45 percent of the officers in
the study had a degree anyway. Half of the officers had majored in criminal justice; the
rest had degrees in disciplines ranging from psychology to business. Interestingly, the
type of degree did not affect officers negative views on job satisfaction or their
supervisors.
Terrill said the job dissatisfaction might stem partly from the fact that college-educated
officers who join the force wanting to make a genuine difference in society are instead
met with the reality of patrolling high-crime areas at night.
In my opinion is a hard reality yet regardless of the degree an officer has, its fundamental
to understand that an officer must fulfill his or her role, whether is patrolling on a high
crime neighborhood, or having to do something as simple as blocking or organizing
traffic for an event. Regardless of what duty they are fulfilling they are serving our
community and they should come with that open mind to do so.
An Associates degree should be the minimum education requirement to join law
enforcement. It provides great input to an officer to better serve and understand society in
any given community.

Conclusion

I believe that further education matters greatly and likely improves a police
officer's effectiveness; therefore police officers should have college education as a
minimum education requirement. In the long run it will help them serve more efficiently,

it will help create a better image of authority among citizens, furthermore promote the
use less force on individuals, witch will lead to make the view of law enforcement as
more legitimate and trustworthy. Lastly it will make a better not only officer but person.
I conclude that an associates degree should be the minimum requirement to be admitted,
since it will provide the officer with the tools and broad views of our society and latest
trainings and techniques.

Work Cited

Goff, K. (2014, December 01). Are College Educated Police Safer? Retrieved April 01,
2016, from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/01/are-college-educatedpolice-safer.html

Bostrom, M. (2005, October 10). Police Chief Magazine - View Article. Retrieved March
26, 2016, from http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?
fuseaction=display_arch

Terrill, W. (2015, February 05). Do cops need college? Retrieved March 29, 2016, from
http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2015/do-cops-need-college/