A growing number of entry-level criminal justice practitioners have college degrees. This paper will explore whether or not law enforcement agencies should require applicants to have a post secondary degree as a condition of employment and will college-educated police officers will be resistant to organizational change.
Post Secondary Degree Requirements for Police Officers
Perceptions of what constitutes a qualified police officer have been crafted as a result of numerous television shows and movies. They are often portrayed as heroic, invincible, and possessors of brute strength. While some of these physical attributes are in fact expected and required of police officers, they are not the only ones and at times, may come secondary to alternative methods, such as the use of strong communication and critical thinking skills. Policing has changed immensely since the days of resolving issues with a night stick. There is a desire for today’s police officers to possess the educational capacity to develop and implement community policing initiatives. Additionally, there exists a desire to professionalize policing. This drive for professionalism has led to the desire for increased educational requirements (Brecci, 1994).
The emphasis on the need for police officers to have a post secondary education is not new. During the Political Era of policing, police officers were often politically appointed, regardless of their level of capacity to do the job. Forms of corruption like nepotism, bribes, and politically based decisions were commonplace. As such, the public’s perception of the police was that they were lawless and their trust and confidence soon eroded away. This era resulted in a need for reform. ...
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The Thompson Valley Police Service is seeking to double the number of police recruits over the next three years. In an attempt to attract more applicants, the newly appointed Police Commissioner, Commissioner Jason DeVillain is proposing two key changes to the current selection process. Firstly, Commissioner DeVillain is proposing to eliminate the requirement for partial or completed tertiary education. Secondly, it is being proposed that psychological testing should be removed from the selection process. As a research and policy officer for the Thompson Valley Police Service, the validity and likely impact of the above two proposed changes will be investigated thoroughly, followed by recommendations to Commissioner DeVillain to ensure the selection process is as effective as possible in selecting the most suitable candidates for the new police recruits. The role of a general duties police officer is broad in nature and requires the officer to be efficient in many areas, ranging from administrative duties to conflict resolution and problem solving. In addition to the recording and logging of all jobs attended while on duty, the officer may be required to prepare documents for court hearings, where written communication skills will also be
It is both a result and a cause of police isolation from the larger society and of police solidarity. Its influence begins early in the new officer’s career when he is told by more experienced officers that the “training given in police academies is irrelevant to ‘real’ police work”. What is relevant, recruits are told, is the experience of senior officers who know the ropes or know how to get around things. Recruits are often told by officers with considerable experience to forget what they learned in the academy and in college and to start learning real police work as soon as they get to their Field Training Officers. Among the first lessons learned are that police officers share secrets among themselves and that those secrets especially when they deal with activities that are questionable in terms of ethics, legality, and departmental policy, are not to be told to others. They also are told that administrators and Internal Affairs officers cannot often be trusted. This emphasis on the police occupational subculture results in many officers regarding themselves as members of a “blue
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The training that officers receive should include a well-rounded education. As Fyfe points out (Fyfe art...
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The Vancouver Police Service is just one example who have changed their hiring standard requiring applicants to have a minimum of 30 credits from an accredited university or college (Vancouver Police Service, 2017). Many agencies like the RCMP still only require a minimum of a high school diploma to be hired. Police agencies in Canada need to start changing their hiring process to only look for people who have obtained a diploma or a degree from an accredited post secondary school. If agencies start hiring people who have post secondary education the recruits will be entering recruit training with a wide range of skills already learnt. Canadian police agencies need to look ahead and realize how complex crimes are becoming and start hiring highly educated and trained personnel. Another aspect that will be beneficial to police agencies hiring more educated officers is the appearance it will have on the public. After all the police can only function with the support of the pubic, and many people believe that police officers should have more education than only a high school
Police Officers. Today, police forces screen candidates who want to be police officers based on their level of education (Goff, 2014, p. 204). Police forces also often more training on the job and greater specialized training on the job (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014, p. 50). By raising the education standards of officers, as well as offering more on job training, police agencies aim to employ more efficient officers with increased knowledge on the use of technology (p. 191). Studies have shown that law enforcement officers with more education are better at dealing with stress from the job, take more initiative on the job, are more professional on the job, and generate less public complaints than officers of similar status with less
This paper will show four different police departments that are currently hiring or recruiting for police officers. There will be a summary on the research found on the process used to recruit police officers. It will also show their current hiring trends and what hiring practices they have that are successful or not successful. The paper will also go over the different methods departments use to train their new officers and their values.
“How to motivate law enforcement officers” is an article that was written by James A. Jancewicz and published in the Law enforcement magazine on April 7th, 2016. In the article, Mr. James argues that police officers need the motivation to inspire excellence as the belief of being called to protect and serve are not enough. Motivating officers will ensure the long-term success of the law enforcement as the communities will be safe and the enforcement will be respected. Motivation in the law enforcement includes giving officers training and opportunity for challenge, allowing
Police officers are constantly interacting with the general public so it is inevitable that they will acquire firm emotions and assumptions of a person based on their race and ethnicity (Semple, 2013). Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions and beliefs, but those same opinions and beliefs lead to discriminatory treatment of certain individuals (Semple, 2013). Many law enforcement agencies exhaust funds and assets to teach their employees and future employees to be blind to race and religion and protect and serve the people equally (Semple, 2013). Police misconduct such as brutality and racial profiling can be reduced by strict survallince and sensitivity training (Osterndorf, 2015). Police have to stop letting their emotions get involved when handling the law with a citizen. Officers are often annoyed when they have to go through sustainment training or new training because of the assumption that their on the job experience and knowledge is enough to do their job (Semple, 2013). The situation with that type of comportment is that at some point their cognizance becomes pass because they were reluctant to go through training and take in incipient erudition. Officers who are paid a competitive salary are less liable to be corrupt because they do not have the desideratum to glom to compensate for a low income. Finally, another proposal to limit the brutality
There are virtually an unlimited amount of aspects about police work that places them in harm’s way every day. The debate still continues over whether policing is a craft or profession. As stated in Law Enforcement in the United States by James A. Conser, “A craft usually involves the development of skills that are generally learned through experience, not in a classroom (Conser, 2011, p.216). Conser also states, “the following are the typical characteristic identified criteria of profession: extensive preparation through education and training, a specific and specialized body of knowledge, a code of ethics (Conser, 2011, p.215).
The police officer’s job, Vollmer declared, was to form alliances in the community that would lead to strategies to deal with the “pre-delinquent” youngster, while at the same time working to alleviate the social and psychological causes of later delinquency and crime. His view of his idealized crime-fighting police officer was suggested in his 1919 article titled “The Policeman as a Social Worker.” In this article he described his view of the officer as the ultimate crime fighter who understood crime and worked to prevent its occurrence. In order to bring about this kind of police officer, he realized that the officer must be intelligent, educated, and trained. That meant, essentially, elevating the role and status of police officers to make
In the beginning police officers were given a gun and handcuffs and told to enforce the law and keep the peace. Eventually through trial and error police academies were born. These academies would give officers the basic training they needed before they began their patrols. Most officers recruited by a law enforcement agency will have to meet certain requirements. This paper will focus on the educational requirement if any and if law enforcement officers need a higher education to exceed.
Within law enforcement, the concept of the “warrior” is a commonly acknowledged term in which refers to the officers mindset. Current policing has meticulously adapted the warrior mentality, now officers are taught early on to establish a “warrior attitude.” (Stoughton, 2015). An officer being referred to as a police warrior instils
“Police Officers take risks and secure that safety of fellow citizens, and they endure such risks and tolerate such inconveniences on behalf of strangers” (International Association of Chief of Police). In this paper I will be talking about the history, skill set, duties, training, education, job outlook, and more for being a police officer.