Certified Criminal Justice Professional

The Profession in General

A review of the federal law-enforcement officers' corps will dispel the notion that the college-degreed officer is not problematic. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is one of several federal law-enforcement agencies with strict hiring standards, codes of conduct, internal agency policies, and relatively good employee benefits and salaries. The career journeyman (nonsupervisory) federal agent earns more than $140,000 per year, which represents an average salary of $50,000 more than the national median for a chief of police in the United States. However, none of these benefits has deterred FBI employees from engaging in unethical, immoral, and illegal conduct. If the conversation takes a focus on ethics and integrity, there is little evidence to support that the college-educated law-enforcement officer is devoid of these temptations.

Although it is unpopular to note, cronyism and most-favored status have a far greater influence on most law-enforcement careers than does a college degree. Some candidates for law-enforcement employment or career officers may ask the critical question: Should they pursue an academic degree or a series of certifications directly related to the career? Costs and time, as well as return on investment, suggest that these discussions are appropriate in today's complex world.

Nationwide, it is generally found that, in order to be considered for employment as a law-enforcement officer, the candidate is required to have completed a high school education or general equivalency diploma, be free from felony convictions, and pass a series of internal assessments. If the applicant successfully completes these assessments, he or she can attend a certified police academy training program that generally takes 16 weeks. After a candidate completes the police academy training program, some agencies require prospective officers to complete a field training apprentice program with a senior officer acting as a mentor. Upon successful completion of the training program, the officer is released to his or her assigned duties. Throughout their career, officers attend nonacademic, specialized training programs to comply with various mandates generally driven by legal precedent and policy mandates.

Overall, an officer can complete assigned duties with a general educational background and applied field training, along with experience provided by the agency. Given the status of the economy in 2010, most agencies must find ways to reduce their expenses, and funding for education and training are frequently targets for fiscal reduction measures. Agency-paid college education programs are likely to be reduced or altogether phased out because of costs.

...