Education of Police

Improving the education of police has been an enduring feature of reform in America and other Western nations. Although the desirability of a professionally trained police force can be dated at least as far back as Sir Robert Peele (around 1830), the notion received support in America from a variety of police reformers, such as August Vollmer, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Wickersham Commission. Until the mid-20th century, the ambitions of reformers were modest compared to today's standards: first, hiring officers who could read and write, and somewhat later, recruiting officers who had completed a high school education. But after World War II, a high school education became the norm, and college education began to appear in some agencies as an appropriate goal, one that has become increasingly popular as a means of advancement in, if not admission to, the occupation.

Perhaps the real takeoff point in the stimulus for higher education for police came in 1967 with the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, which recommended that all police have baccalaureate degrees (President's Commission, 1967). Numerous other blue-ribbon commissions in the late 1960s and 1970s have promoted higher education for police, and since then, advocacy has been backed by policy. The Law Enforcement Education Program, following on the heels of the President's Commission, provided tremendous financial incentives for officers getting a college education, and it was arguably a significant factor in the profusion of criminal justice programs in academic institutions throughout the United States that occurred in the next decade or so. Today, police professional associations, such as the Police Executive Research Forum and the Police Association for College Education, actively advocate for police officers obtaining baccalaureate degrees.

Formal education of the police occurs in two arenas: institutions of higher learning operated outside the policing industry, and in police institutions themselves, the latter typically distinguished from the former by the term training. This entry concerns itself only with formal education obtained outside of police-sponsored institutions. Given contemporary standards (nearly all American police have high school degrees) and ambitions, “education” will be limited to that provided by colleges and universities at the baccalaureate and graduate levels. Comments will focus on police education in the United States.

One thing can be said with confidence of police education: Police officers are getting more of it than ever before. By 2000, 15% of local departments required at least some college, ranging from 10% of departments serving fewer than 2,500 to 33% of departments serving a million or more. In 2000, 32% of local police officers worked in departments requiring at least some college, up substantially from the 10% level in 1990. Only 1% of all departments in 2000 required a minimum of a baccalaureate degree, but a college degree has become a virtual necessity for advancement and pay increases for[Page 164] large numbers of officers. In 2000, 58% of officers were employed by departments offering tuition incentives, and 49% worked in departments that offered incentive pay for education (Hickman & Reaves, 2003, pp. 8–9). A study of Texas peace officers in larger departments showed that higher education reduced the time required for promotion in rank and assignment to specialized positions, and it was associated with appointment to supervisory or administrative positions (Polk & Armstrong, 2001).

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