Do Police Officers Need An Education?

Do Police Officers Need An Education?

Joshua Fox
Salt Lake Community College
November 27, 2016

Do Police Officers Need An Education?

Through researching the topic of police officers needing a college education it is easy to
see that the views regarding this topic vary on who you decide to talk to. The trends seem to
point more towards scholars and government officials leaning more towards a future filled with
police officers who have college degrees, however the officers themselves seem to side on the
opposite end of the spectrum where they believe experience comes with the job and a college
education cant teach you what the job teaches you. Looking at some research will show what
this means.
First off we can look at the reasoning behind the benefits of a police officer who has a
college education, and why it is necessary. Professor David Weisburd conducted a study that
concluded in 2008. His goal was to look at the effects a college education had on the way police
officers perceived the abuse of police authority. After the conduction of the national experiment
and collecting the data, the results showed that regardless of the time that the officers received
any type of college education (associates degree, bachelors degree, etc.) the officers showed less
supportive behaviors towards the abuse of authority. His conclusion was that college education
would improve police mentality, but couldnt find enough data to support that college education
is the only answer for changing the way officers perceive the abuse of authority.
Looking at the results from the research of Weisburd, it is my opinion that college
education has a benefit. Officers who have look at the abuse of authority can only improve the
situation and police force. On the other hand, it is hard to justify making all officers receive a
college education just because of a better attitude though.

Do Police Officers Need An Education?

Jason Rydberg and William Terrill of Michigan State University were unsatisfied with the
process of how research had been conducted to find out the effects of college education on police
work, so they took a more non conventional approach than that of the past. They decided the
best way to determine actual results would be to focus on three specific points of police work
and how secondary education effects them. The three points focused on were arrest, search, and
use of force. They took results from two big city police departments and the results show that
college education has no effect on search or arrest. The facts do show that the use of force is
reduced significantly from the officers who have received a higher education.
Rydberg and Terrills research might deter people from focusing on a mandatory
education for officers because it doesnt affect the majority of police work, but others would
argue that decreasing the use of force is worth it. My opinion drawn from their research would be
that making officers go into secondary education just to reduce the use of force would be a waste
of the officers time and money, there are other ways in which to teach officers to reduce their use
of force.
There is a long list of countless attributes you can find when researching this subject
about how officers are improved because of secondary education, but a lot of these points or
attributes cant be proven to be just because of that education. While statistics show positivity,
college education cant be proven as the only reason for these changes within officers, making it
difficult to convince the proper electives to force that education onto officers.
Another way to look at the importance of a higher education for police officers is to see if
that higher education could help them pass the written, multi-choice examination that most states
require, or score higher than those officers who have not received that education.

Do Police Officers Need An Education?

David A Paprota of Seton Hall University was able to get a committee and test out a
hypothesis that higher education would not significantly help officers in New Jersey score
significantly higher on their tests to enter the police force. Another contingency of the hypothesis
was that all the officers would be exposed to the same pre-test study materials supplied and
suggested by the police force in New Jersey. The results of the research and analysis used
mathematics and formulas to be as accurate as possible. The results showed that higher education
did not help officers get a significantly higher score on these tests than those officers who had
not received secondary education.
Seeing the results from Paprota, it is hard for me or anyone to argue that a college
education can help officers be better prepared for trying to join the Police. You could even draw
the conclusion that you are better off not wasting your time and money and getting into the
Police force earlier so that you can get more experience faster.
Weisburd, whom I referred to earlier also published a book proposing an outline for the
future of police work. This new paradigm would include universities helping police forces in
creating a better and more advanced way to look and keep evidence. His studies show that higher
education would help officers be able to use this equipment and understand the science behind
the evidence more effectively.
Drawing conclusions or assumptions from this theory would suggest that higher
education will help officers be better police men/woman, because they can use that education to
think outside of the box in certain situations. I do not agree with that outlook, because thinking
outside of the box cant be taught and you learn how to do that type of thing on the job.

Do Police Officers Need An Education?

ABSTRACT
From all of the research that I was able to do and by reading about educational research
conducted on the benefits and results of officers who engage in higher education the results show
that overall higher education does not affect police work in many ways. The consensus seems to
be that higher education does effect the attitudes of police officers whether it be to use less force,
or to look negatively upon the abuse of power. There are many points that scholars point to that
benefit officers who have received a higher education, but no results can claim that higher
education is the sole reason for these benefits. The way that the Police operate may change in the
future, requiring more officers to have higher education. Overall it is my conclusion that higher
education should not be necessary for officers, because they can learn on the job and higher
education is too much money and too much time for benefits that can be found in other ways.

Do Police Officers Need An Education?

Works Cited
Weisburd, David, Rosann Greenspan, Edwin E. Hamilton, Kellie A. Bryant, and Hubert
Williams. 2001. The abuse of police authority: A national study of police
officers attitudes.Washington, DC: Police Foundation. Web.
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/handle/1903/8098/umi-umd-5263.pdf;sequence=1

Rydberg, Jason. The Effect Of Higher Education On Police Behavior. Web. 3 January 2010.
http://pqx.sagepub.com/content/13/1/92.short

Paprota, David. The Influence of Higher Education on Entry Level

Law Enforcement Examination Outcomes. 2012. Web.
http://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2786&context=dissertations

Weisburd, David and Neyroud, Peter. Police science: Toward a new paradigm [online].
Australasian Policing, Vol. 5, No. 2, Summer 2013: 13-21. Availability:
<http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=855852191380857;res=IELHSS> ISSN:
1837-7009. [cited 28 Nov 16].