Yuna Tamura

CJ 1010
Gregory Butler
Writing Assignment






Do police officers need a college education?












In most cases, you can work in the law enforcement field without a degree such
as Associate and Bachelors degrees. You need to be a U.S. citizen, have a driver's
license, and have no felony in order to become a police officer, but higher education is
not a necessary requirement (Gaines & Miller, 185). However, nowadays, college
education have been seen as if it was one of the most important conditions for people
who want to become police officers, and many police officers pursue a college
education. Do they really need a college education? I think that this question can be
interpreted as the question that whether it is worthwhile for police officers to have a
degree (Hilal, 1). Before I started to learn about a higher education in the law
enforcement field, I had shortly assumed that a college education must contribute to
police officers' job, so they should pursue a degree. Now, I know that there are problems
with the trend toward a college education in the field, but I still believe that a higher
education makes for better police officers.
As I mentioned above, the demand for higher educational levels of police
officers does not only have good aspects. One of the biggest concerns for the officers is
the cost of tuition. According to a recent study,
"A local police officer's median annual wage in 2010 was $55,010, but in small
jurisdictions, salaries often start below $25,000. It costs an average of $7,703
annually to obtain a 2-year degree and $15,104 for a 4-year degree from a
public school (including room and board)" (Hilal, 1).
It seems hard for many police officers to pay the tuition for a college even if they want a
degree. Actually, "most of the officers (83 percent) said that if scholarships were made
available, they would continue their education"(Hilal, 4). Also, many officers worry
about disqualifying well-suited candidates, based on economic considerations (Breci,
1). Concerning money, there is another problem with this degree seeking movement;
"the person with a 4-year degree will not want to work at the pay scale small towns can
afford to pay"(Breci, 1). In fact, it is hard for small departments and rural law
enforcement agencies to compete with larger, urban police departments in recruiting
personnel (Breci, 1).
However, of course, there are advantages to have a college degree as a law
enforcement officer. When asked to describe how college classes helped them as law
enforcement officers, most of the officers answered the following benefits:
Keep officers current/help them to become well-rounded.
Help officers to understand the public and how to communicate more
effectively with citizens.
Prepare officers for advancement/provide management skills.
Provide officers with computer skills (Breci, 1).
I think that it is very important for police officers to have good relationships with
citizens, so communication skills would be necessary for them. I am shy, and I cannot
socialize with new people soon. Though I prefer to stay with those who I know well, I
have got a lot of opportunities to meet new people at college. College life gives us more
chances to be involved with new people than high school and junior high school life do,
so it is reasonable that the officers answered that they improved their communication
ability because of college classes.
Contrary to our expectation that college education would lead to improvements
in police job performance, many researches showed that relationships between
education and police job performances have generally been weak (Truxillo, 269).
Nevertheless, many important abilities for good police officers seem to be learned at
college: writing skills, communication ability, stress management skills, and computer
skills as Brecis report illustrates. Being able to use computer well would be one of the
most required skills in this age when cybercrimes prevail, and it will be getting more
and more important. Considering the problems of the trend toward higher education in
the field, I cannot insist that a police officer must have a college degree, but it would be
ideal to have at least an Associate degree as a person who has the law enforcing power
over citizens. If there is a problem with the cost of tuition fees for a college, I would
suggest that police academies should provide the classes of general educations with
affordable prices. Statistics might show that higher education does not contribute to
improvements in police job performances, but I believe that it gives good effects on
police officers performances, which statistics cannot count with numbers.










References
Breci, M. G. (1994). Higher education for law enforcement. (cover story). FBI Law
Enforcement Bulletin, 63(1), 1.
Gaines, L. K., Miller, R. L. (2010). Criminal Justice in Action, 6
th
Edition.
Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.
Hilal, S. (2013). Higher Education and Local Law Enforcement. FBI Law Enforcement
Bulletin, 82(5), 1.
Truxillo, D. L. (1998). College education and police job performance: A ten-year study.
Publice Personnel Management, 27(2), 269.