Educational Requirements and Law Enforcement - Research Paper Example

Educational Requirements and Law Enforcement Educational Requirements and Law Enforcement Introduction The law enforcement officers play a major and important role in the society. In the USA, there have been some attempts to improve the service that these law enforcement offers offer society. In the earlier days, law enforcement was never seen as a profession. With the invention of the FBI, the need to promote law enforcement from a blue-collar to a white-color job became imminent. There was a suggestion for the requirement of the officers of discipline to have a college degree for them to be recruited into service in. the suggestion was intended to improve service by public law enforcement officers. This has been criticized, especially due to the fact that it leaves out minority ethnic groups who have a lower chance of being educated. The other main question that has to be answered is the question of whether the requirement of law enforcement officers to have a degree increases their efficacy and professionalism in executing their job of policing. Analysis The requirement for law enforcement officers to have a higher education is a topic that cannot be easily exhausted. Definitely, there are some advantages in having educated officers. To begin with, research and literature seems to indicate that college educated officers are more likely to be more productive and also be better able to handle difficult situations that need judgment and discretion. For instance, as Doerner (2007) says, policemen with a higher education are more likely to handle sensitive situations in a better way than those with only a high school education. Secondly, the need to professionalize the profession of policing requires that the people be required to take up higher education. The only problem with this is that they are not necessarily needed to take up courses related to their work. This then brings in a problem because the definition of a professional is that he or she must take an education that related to her service. It might be better to ask; is it necessary to need law enforcement officers to be educated, to professionalize the trade? If so, what is meant by professionalizing? The truth, is, even as there is some evidence that college educated law enforcement officers are able to be more effective in executing their duties, this does not necessarily solve the issue of improving the trade. Dunham (2001) argues that police attitudes may be changed for the better by and education. However, he argues this does not solve all the issues. Making law enforcement to be professional would be done better if there were college courses specifically to train these officers. The other problem with regard to the requirement of police officers to have higher education is that it locks the minority ethnic races out of the service. Despite the fact that a lot has been accomplished in the last five decades with regards to bringing minority ethnic groups on board, these minority groups such as blacks and Hispanics still have a higher risk of not getting high education. Requiring the recruitment of officers to have higher education locks them from the service. According to Alpert (2004), the best way to improve the levels of education among law enforcement officers without locking minority ethnic groups is by creating curriculums for these law enforcement officers and then making it possible for those from the minority groups to be able to partake these courses. This would solve tow problems in one instance. This is because it would mean that the police are taking professional courses that are specifically to what they do, and that the minorities are not hindered from getting into service. According to Das (2007), higher education affects the professionalism in police. However, he argues that this does not have to be college degrees. At the same time, Martin (2012) in his article argues that affirmative action in favor for minorities such as blacks are no longer an issue and should not be used to hinder the requirement for high education for law enforcement officers. Rydberg and Terrill (2010) in their article discuss that the level of an officers education does not influence the probability of an arrest occurring when a police meets a suspect, but may affect the way a police decided to or not to use force. This, they say is due to the fact that the college educated policeman is most likely to be able to use discretion to know when it is necessary to use force and when it is not necessary. Still, while this is a good indication that the requirement to have police educated in college may improve service, it still does not explain why it is necessary for these police have to take courses that are not related to what they have to do. Law enforcement officers remain as the only people who have to take courses that are not even related to their work. The irony about this is that this is supposed to enhance their profession. As a result, the question that must be answered is with regard to why they should not take a course purposely prepared for policing. Why for instance need a person to go to college to do a course in accounting so they can become better policemen? Other professionals such as engineers are never required to take courses in other areas such as economics for them to become more effective in their jobs. Yet, law enforcement officers are required to take other courses that are not related to what they do. It appears that there is a bigger problem in this case. Probably, this attitude may have begun in the earlier days of policing where policing was seen as a vocational issue rather than a professional issue. As time has moved on, the need for the improvement of these policemen in order for them to be able to serve the society was imminent and the way to do this was to require, or encourage them to take up college programs, even if these programs were not necessarily related to the work of a law enforcement officer. Unfortunately, the same kind of attitude seems to have persisted and this attitude informs the policy development of today. Thus far, not one has been able to prove satisfactorily the benefits of increased levels of education in law enforcement officers. Discussion The research was geared towards identifying whether the requirement for higher education in police recruitment helps in creating a better law enforcement. This was done by looking at past studies as well as academic literature. It is very clear that although college educated officers may be better than those who do not have college education, this does not solve all the problems facing law enforcement. In fact, it introduces more problems such as locking minorities out of the service. More so, requiring higher education for law enforcement recruitment may help in recruitment of officers who are a little better than those without a college education, but still does not achieve the larger goal of introducing professionalism in law enforcement as a career. Conclusion There is a clear need for change of policy with regard to law enforcement officers’ recruitment. A total overhaul of how law enforcement is regarded by policy makers may be needed in order to develop with strategies that can deliver better results. The current strategy only offers partial solution and in the process creates even more problem. Policy makers in this area must regard law enforcement like a profession like any other and think of how to develop education programs that can be studied by those who want to join law enforcement, eve up to PhD levels. References Alpert, G. (2004). Understanding Police Use of Force: Officers, Suspects, and Reciprocity. London, UK: Cambridge University Press. Das, D. (2007). Police Education and Training in a Global Society. New York, NY: Lexington Books. Doerner, W. (2007). Introduction to Law Enforcement: An Insiders View. New York, NY: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. Dunham, R. (2001). Critical Issues in Policing: Contemporary Readings. New York, NY: Waveland Press. Martin, R. (2012). Advancing Police Professionalism Through Higher Education. Law Enforcement Forum, 12, 2 , PP. 76-82. Rydberg, J. & Terrill, W. (2010). The Effect of Higher Education on Police Behavior. Police Quarterly, 13, 92 , PP. 93-115. Read More