By Jim Glennon for Calibre Press

Last week I wrote a column titled, A College Degree Proves What? Police Agencies Should Rethink the Necessity of College Degrees for Applicants. I intended to spark some discussion, and, well, it certainly did. We received emails, comments, personal stories and opinions. Admittedly, I was shocked that virtually all of the comments and emails agreed with my premise.

A couple of emails did point out that an academic study noted officers with college degrees, in general, had higher evaluations and less citizen complaints, a study I do remember. Another, from a psychologist, wrote, “I have found those with the motivation and drive to attend college or the military are more mature and have a wider range of life experiences.”

I don’t necessarily disagree with either of those opinions, as I would have agreed with them, in general, 25 years ago. But, as I tried to point out in my article, what about those graduating college now?

Many who reached out had the opinion that colleges and universities over the past several decades have become “indoctrination academies” that quash dissent and critical thinking. Listen to some of those screaming at pro-Hamas rallies. Their lack of understanding truth and reality is alarming.

Still, others who work at academies or in training divisions advised that the dropout rate over the past ten years has skyrocketed. Recruit officers quitting for a variety of reasons that included but are not limited to; refusal to understand the need to show up on time, working night shift and weekends, receiving any type of discipline, arguing about personal time being impacted by the job and angst over mandatory overtime and/or not being allowed to possess their cell phones in academy classes or in their squad cars.

Finally, we heard from many who had Criminal Justice degrees and others who taught in Criminal Justice Programs at colleges and universities across the country. An alarming number of them lamented about the vile perspective and hate many who run these CJ Divisions have for the law enforcement community and the profession in general. And, not surprisingly, most of those denigrating the profession were never cops.

As a timely sidenote: Fox business just published an article about the Freedom Economy Index (FEI), surveying opinions from 70,000 small businesses asking about the “return on investment” of higher education reference their own employees. Incredibly, 67% of those surveyed responded with a “strongly no” when asked if they believed institutions of higher education were “graduating students with relevant skills that today’s business community needs.” An additional 24.4% responded “somewhat no” with the remaining 8.7% responding either “somewhat yes,” “strongly yes,” or “other.”

So, let’s take a look at some of those who have their own opinions about the need for college degrees in order to apply for a job in law enforcement.

Deputy Chief Terry McCord with the Danville (IL) PD responds:

Supporting your point from a different angle, backward. I’m 53 years old and currently enrolled in online classes to obtain my Criminal Justice BAS. Why at 53? So I can retire from my current position as a Deputy Chief that I obtained with only an associate degree and be able to pursue a chief of police position somewhere in a much warmer climate. Almost all police chief positions require a bachelor’s degree and prefer a master’s.

I’ve had good and bad professors. Some teach and instruct what’s needed in law enforcement, some could care less. My classes aren’t difficult mainly because I use my experience of almost 30 years of law enforcement. When I took classes for three semesters as an 18- and 19-year-old out of high school I struggled. Now maturity may have much to do with it, but in my opinion you just can’t beat experience. The officers we hire in today’s world need experience. Life experience. Not mom and dad paying for college while they simply attend classes for a few hours a few days and play video games or view TikTok and Snapchat videos the rest of the time.

Colonel Jim Smith Public Safety Director Cottonwood (AL) Police Department comments:

If nothing else, a degree teaches one to research, read, study, and produce reports. I believe another major benefit is the socialization process that exposes one to many other lifestyles and backgrounds. To me interacting with people in the neutral setting of higher education is important. I see so many officers today who cannot produce a well written report, have grammar issues, and cannot use presentation programs when needed. This is frustrating as the high schools seem to have failed to educate and train students to perform these tasks. In small and medium sized agencies, one finds it common for officers to have to perform these roles presenting a visual presentation of a crime scene to a jury, using a program to reconstruct a motor vehicle crash scene, or presenting a program to a civic club or command staff.

What should be occurring is higher education should be tailoring its programs to the technical resources and skills needed by LEOs and spending less time on exotic classes. I teach CJ classes and for the four universities I have taught for, we shaped the classes to fit the needs of LEOs with useful knowledge and technical expertise. One has to carefully consider the program and its content before spending the money to attend the classes.

From Philip Semple, a retired Training Constable with the Toronto Police Service:

I don’t see an issue with setting the minimum requirement at high school level. While it serves as a baseline, it doesn’t necessarily dictate hiring exclusively at that level. There are many reasons why some people do not go on to post-secondary education, and it should not be a barrier to entry into the profession of policing.

Having said that, I do not believe education is ever wasted. Education should enhance an individual’s ability to communicate and comprehend large quantities of written material which, as you progress in the field of policing, certainly exists. After retiring from policing, I got into education and completed my PhD from the University of Toronto. (I wonder if that makes a difference in how you the reader accept what I’ve said so far). Interestingly, enough, I also have a wife who is much smarter than I am, and who assisted me on my academic journey without herself ever attaining any formal credential beyond a college diploma. Continued education does not give you street smarts or common sense, but it does give you other abilities that can be of assistance, depending on where your career takes you.

CO I Alice Kernan, with the Centennial (CO) Correctional Facility responds:

I wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for publishing this article. I am one of those who is old and suffering professionally because I don’t have a degree. My common sense, old school work ethic and my level of integrity isn’t deemed worthy enough to advance to higher paying, mid-level professional jobs because I don’t have an educational institution vouching for my intelligence on a piece of pretty paper.

I am so glad that someone said it and someone believes it because they actually see it. It means especially more from you because you have multiple degrees, yet you are recognizing that your education didn’t set you up to apply HOW to think independently, as opposed to WHAT a professor told you to think.

You hit so many points and I appreciate it so much knowing that someone understands what I’m going through, and probably many others. The only question now is, how do you break the cycle?

An officer with a Canadian law enforcement agency writes: 

In my younger days, I was an Air Cadet, Naval Reservist and Auxiliary Police Constable. I have held full time jobs since I was 17 years old. I worked 5 jobs while attending college. I left college after 1 year to go directly into a successful career in Air Traffic.

The range of jobs I’ve held has given me more life experience, more ability to deal with the public, more skills at problem solving and de-escalating conflict than 4 years of university ever would. I should mention that one of those full-time jobs was as a security officer at a university. At times, the “intelligence” displayed by the student body would make any prospective hiring manager cringe. Many of the folk coming out of University are in fields that have absolutely nothing to do with their degree.

As a lifelong learner, I have since completed a diploma program at University, and have many certificates for job-related courses, but I do not qualify as having a degree. As such, even with 25 years experience, I am screened out of job postings. However, I’d put my resume and my experience up against anyone with a degree. I’m just not given that chance. That’s not only a loss to me, but it’s a huge loss to the places that won’t get the benefit of my experience.

From Deputy Chief (ret.) Lou Arcangeli from the Atlanta PD:

Thank you for a thoughtful analysis of a sacred cow that has outlived its contribution to policing.

In looking back, I remember the 1967 “Crime in a Free Society” report as the first major push for the national initiative of college requirements for police.  (The link in the title is a PDF file and is searchable by key words.)

Out of this and other research came the push for college recruitment, pay incentives for college, and the LEAA grants and funding of tuition for police candidates that could be repaid by work in law enforcement.

Add to this the devaluation of college diplomas through online diploma mills, and the general decline of critical thinking in all higher education, and it is clear that the requirement must be changed.

I vividly recall the disparity and the resentment in the Atlanta Police Department when college grads salaries were higher than Vietnam veterans. I know this as a college grad who worked a foot beat with a partner who was a Vietnam helicopter pilot. We agreed it was unfair.

Why would a candidate with an online degree be prioritized over a military vet who had learned discipline, skills, competence with weapons, and had real world experience?  Why would a police recruit candidate from a party college be a better hire than an inner-city candidate who had demonstrated competence in high school academics and athletics and worked in a job with progressively increased responsibilities for two years?  In making hiring decisions late in my career I always sought out the latter.

I recall several college grads in 1973/1974 who felt that they were more highly qualified for advancement because of their degree, despite their cluelessness about the functioning of inner-city life, culture and traditions.  A high school grad who had worked their way up to shift manager in a fast-food restaurant was far more suited to understand interpersonal dynamics, the reality of crime and crime victims, and the psychology of criminals and the needs of all citizens than almost all the college grads I worked with. Naturally the college kid recruits who had a chip on their shoulder were quickly humiliated by peers, and by the realities of police work, yet they were paid several pay increments more than the veterans they worked alongside.

Thank you for raising this question in a thoughtful and analytical manner.

Brian Burry, who formerly served with the Fresno and Santa Ana PDs in California writes:

Instead of a “show up and get a degree” type education, the military requires excellence, hard work and tremendous development of skills to achieve the Military Occupational Specialty objectives. Take a Special Forces (Green Beret) Medical Sergeant course. It includes every basic area the physician assistant or nurse practitioner would be trained in and after a year and a half of training, they go and fight for their country. Until very recently hardly any credit was given for all that technical training from surgical to pharmacy to veterinary dentistry to preventive medicine and more required of that highly skilled MOS. In comparison to a liberal arts degree, that would pale against that Medical Sgt! A degree gives me a nice thing to have but is not a necessity.

Ptlm. James O’Neill with the Royersfors Borough (PA) PD who previously served with the Pottstown Borough (PA) PD for 28 yrs. comments:

As I have reminded my son: Education gives you the “knowledge” but in exercising that knowledge, you gain wisdom. That professor who tested your theories is the way education should be. Particularly when dealing with LEs requirement of constantly interacting with other human beings.

I served several years with the Marine Corps and also worked on getting my associate degree in criminal justice. In the several months after the Marines and before getting a police career, I worked part time as security in a night club. Some think I did that to learn how to handle violent people, which was totally wrong. I had dealt with violent people numerous times. It was not so much a factor once I was conditioned to it. I worked that job to learn human behavior in an environment I knew police officers have to deal with. Where proper communication is very valuable. I employed as much tact and respect with disruptive people as I could afford to keep patrons secure, myself safe, as well as keeping the disruptive parties safe.

Those skills transitioned very well to police work. As for my college degree, with the exception of a couple classes actually taught by retired police officers who became professors, it really did not help with my overall career. Good departments will teach and invest in their officers.

For the potential officers who have participated in the civilian ride-along program with my former department, I suggested to them that if they decided to go to college, my recommendation was to pursue English degrees, due to the amount of writing and communicating we do, or political science/sociology, organizational management or history. I suggested finding service jobs or experience in the military to gain some life experience along with seeking out hard challenges. Stay physically sharp. This career is really not fit for people under the age of 25 due to all its complexities and omnipresent liabilities.

Retired Officer Franklin Marino, past Secretary of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association writes:

I’m a vo-tech high school graduate who became a Journeyman Machinist and worked in the trade for just under a decade when a Military deployment changed my career path. I personally believe a college education is overrated, especially with the trends we’ve seen over the past decade and the crap agendas currently being pushed by liberal professors.  While I took several college courses using my GI Bill benefits prior to entering LE, I also received credits from the Academy, earned credits by taking instructor and investigator courses, and used my tuition reimbursement benefit for other courses. I never earned a degree because it wasn’t necessary for my career path.  Nevertheless, I managed to work the streets for 20 years and successfully retired after a 26-year career.

As an FTO, I trained my share of officers with college degrees and some of them had issues with basic report writing, which in addition to interpersonal skills, is a core skill necessary to be successful as a patrol officer.  Taking the words of an instructor from the US Army Military Police School, which I graduated from in 1984, I believe common sense and good judgement are two other vital components of being a successful street cop that need to be combined with command presence, interpersonal and observational skills, officer safety, investigative abilities, critical thinking, and the ability to apply agency policies to every situation you come across during your shift.

Captain Joe Filice responds:

Excellent article! Years ago, an opinion was floating around that the bachelor’s degree was the new high school diploma. At the time, college graduates seemed comparable to high school graduates from a generation earlier in terms of knowledge and skills. With few exceptions, education seems to have degraded at all levels. Critical thinking skills are no longer a requirement to graduate and, at some institutions, could be an impediment. I have interviewed Computer Science graduates who couldn’t hook up a printer. I’m sure that they understood arcane details about printer driver programming but were completely unprepared for a role in IT Support. I have seen too many reports submitted by college graduates that might as well be written in Urdu. Yes, some people graduate with good communication skills and a good work ethic, but college is no longer a guarantee of those skills. The college degree requirement is disqualifying many who may have exactly the skills needed to be great officers.

Finally, Retired DEA Special Agent Ed Wezain shares:

It all depends on the degree; what it prepares you for; and the degree of effort you put into it. College should (but might not) prepare you to think critically and be able to articulate what you see in a coherent written form.  A Law Enforcement or Criminal Justice degree should give you some basic insights into where policing fits into the criminal justice system; investigative techniques; criminal and constitutional law; policing at different levels and what duties this entails; report writing and a host of other “practical” law enforcement skills.  For better and sometimes worse, people who go into law enforcement have no idea what they are getting into. A degree in Law Enforcement or Criminal Justice should prepare them for this.  This is not to say  other degrees might not apply.  For investigative purposes a degree in accounting or computer sciences could also be very useful.

Although I doubt any US law enforcement agencies would adopt this model, there are countries that have a one- to two-year apprenticeship program to become a police office after you graduate the equivalent of high school here in the states. l think most police agencies would find the cost and length of this program prohibitive.

[To read more comments, visit the original article HERE on the Calibre Press Web site.]