Educating Our Police Officers

Introduction

This Paper is written around the topic of Police education and whether or not I believe our police

should have a college education and to what level of education they should require. I believe that

police officers should have a bachelors degree in order to do police work. I believe the more

education and training our officers have the better they will be able to do their job. The more

education an officer has the more likely he is to succeed in his job. Police have a very difficult

and diverse job, they deal with so many situations from first response medic to psychologist to

law enforcer facing deadly danger. There are not many jobs out there as diverse as that of law

enforcement. I believe in order to have a successful policing industry one must be adapt at

problem solving, health response training, and danger control. How else can officers get all that

training at one institution and still maintain quality, I believe this is what the American college

system is there for, to train individuals to be better at the profession they choose to go into.

Discussion

One of the most important things for a police officer to have is the ability to make decisions that

may have life or death consequences and have those decisions be the right one or the one that

does the least harm to all those involved. I know sometimes there are situations where harm will

happen despite the best policing skills an individual can have, how can one stop mass shooter

intent on killing without violent force? The answer to me is simple if that question is phrased

properly there isnt. One of my all-time favorite quotes is Dont define your world in black and

white, because there is so much hidden amongst the grays. Not all situations that we deal with

on a day to day basis are black or white they are more often than not very gray. How then in a



world of gray decisions we expect to train our officers on every situation that might come up?

We cant but we can give our officers the training they need in order to make the best decision

when it comes to those difficult situations. In one of the academic journals Improving law

enforcement cross cultural competencies through continued education it said about critical

thinking Critical thinking skills are demonstrated when gathering, analyzing and evaluating

information in the process of decision-making. Michael Scriven and Richard Paul (2003) define

critical thinking as the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully

conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from,

or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to

belief and action (para. 1). When developing skills for professional application, critical thinking

can provide opportunities in ones ability to analyze and approach problems (Bensley, 2010).

Problem solving is an important element in any profession. (Christine Sereni-Massinger and

Nancy Wood, 2016) Even though this was a large quote I felt it was necessary to show that the

skill officers use day to day in their job is critical thinking and that skill is not only crucial their

profession but most other professional industries out there. The odd thing about that is that

policing is one of the only professional industries that dont require a bachelors degree even

though cops use the same skill other professionals use but in more extreme circumstances. I

believe this shows it is essential for cops to have critical thinking skills.

One of the next points about education I would like to make is the importance for an officer to

receive an education from a civilian based system that encourages free thinking. I believe that an

education is only as valuable as those who taught it. As most professions are taught at

universities so should the police be taught by universities. I believe that by being involved in an

education surrounded by people in classes that they may take like generals and being involved in



a community that way will both strengthen the cops relations with the civilian by understanding

what the community learned. I also believe that civilians would trust cops more knowing they

went through the same educational systems we did. I believe that by having officers trained in

universities will increase respect from both parties and hopefully reduce the them vs. us culture

that we have learned about this semester.

Another reason why university based learning is better than police training is the distinction

of what each of these types of education leads to. In an article by Saraka Hoskova-mayerova It

states Education is considered a means by which a range of possible employee responses are

increased rather than reduced. Education represents a broadening of the individual so that he/she

may be prepared to assess a variety of situations and select for him/herself they most appropriate

response.( Saraka Hoskova-mayerova, 2016) This was a quote I really liked from this article

although it states some of what I talked about previously it highlights what point I wanted to

discuss now. That is how I believe we need to look at the way just training our police officers

does instead of educating themselves. If we train our officers we tell them how to think and how

to act. I believe the more appropriate way for our officers to be educated is given a wide variety

of knowledge and help them develop problem solving skills and critical thinking skills so that

they can use their education and decide what they think this is the best course of action. I know

the police already do this and already use discretion in there policing as to when to arrive at a

scene or decide other things day to day. If our police are already having to use these skills but

then are just being trained are we not limiting the good they can do? Why not educate them and

help them be able to do what they are doing better. I believe university based education is the

way to do that. We educate doctors, engineers, medical first responders, lawyers and all other

professions to think and develop critical thinking skills but not our officers?



The last reason I think officers should get a higher level education is that of the leadership. I

believe that leaders make or break an organization. Some qualities of a leader are natural but like

most things in life I believe a good leader learned to be a good leader, or used his knowledge and

skills to gain the trust of those who he leads. In my last source focused on leadership it states in a

better way what I was just saying Leadership is a complex process, therefore there is no single

process to successful leadership. The uniqueness of individuals provides different aptitudes of

being a leader. As such, there are many leadership traits. According to Northouse (2012),

research studies found 19 important traits for leadership. Of these, the research points to six key

traits: charisma, integrity, confidence, intelligence, determination, and sociability as being the

most significant traits (p. 27). Those gifted with leadership traits, especially with these six, are

well prepared for leadership positions. If traits are lacking, effective leadership can still be

attained through training and education (Northouse, 2012). The outcomes of the CSCs are

designed to develop effective leaders in both public safety and branches of the military.(Richard

H. Martin, 2016). This shows that the skills of leadership if not natural in a person can be

learned, the capability to man is endless but we must strive to reach that capability. We strive to

reach our potential by education, and Universities devote their time and resources to continuing

the education of the people. It is something we strive for and it is something our police officers

should strive for.

Conclusion

As I stated previously It is extremely important for our Police Officers to obtain a higher level of

education and I believe that to be a bachelors degree, as it is the standard for all other

professional industries. I believe that our officers need to be able to think critically, I believe this

skill will help them be better officers and build more trust from the community in a time where



trust is thin. I believe it is crucial for our officers to develop leadership skill not only for within

the police department but so in times of crisis we can look to them for direction and leadership. I

believe that we need to not limit our officers with trainings but to educate them to think for

themselves and use all the skills one can learn from a college education. It is important for us to

trust our cops and rely on them and it is important for them to have the tools to be able to help us

when we need it.




Bibliography

Sereni-Massinger, C., & Wood, N. (2016). Improving Law Enforcement Cross Cultural

Competencies through Continued Education. Journal Of Education And Learning, 5(2),

258-264.

Hokov-Mayerov, . (2016). Education and Training in Crisis Management.

Martin, R. H. (2017). Military, University, and Police Agency Command and Staff Colleges in

the United States. Journal Of Education And Training Studies, 5(2), 215-222.