Do Police Officers Need a College Education?

Do Police Officers Need a Police education?

Austin Bertolina
Salt Lake Community College

Do Police Officers Need a College Education?

For this paper, I had the pleasure of researching about police officers and continuing
education. Police scholars and practitioners have long debated the impact of higher education
on police performance (Manis, et al, 2007, p. 509). What got higher education and improved
police training talked a little more about was from recommendations from the National
Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (Manis, Archbold, & Hassel, 2007). These
Commissions have been studied a lot over the past few decades. There have been studies about
compared levels of authoritarianism with police officers that do/dont have a college education.
There have also been studies that show how higher education affects police officers views
towards racial minorities. I think that with more education, you would gain a greater tolerance
for all of the ethnicities that are prevalent to a certain police officer. For example: a cop in a rural
town is less likely to see as many minorities as a cop in a more urban town. The cop in the more
urban town should have a tolerance to minorities (if they arent one) in order to not be deemed a
racist. That is definitely a recurring problem in this day and age I see a lot of excessive force
that ends up looking like a racial issue. The studies that happened before Manis, Archbold, and
Hassel in 2007, were conducted several years ago, and those researchers drew their data in a
place in the country in which four-year colleges werent very common. With that said, there
could be some bias in the old research. Manis, Archbold, and Hassel found out that police
officers with a college education are more likely to have filed complaints against them compared
to the police officers with just a high-school education (Manis, Archbold, & Hassel, 2007). In
order to decrease the number of filed complaints, that study reveals that college education is a
suitable route to take for police officers. Au contraire, researchers Lersch and Kuzman found no
direct correlation between deputies that had a two-year college degree, vs. deputies that had
completed a four-year degree. With information for that study, one could assume that it doesnt

Do Police Officers Need a College Education?

matter how much college a police officer undergoes, as long as they complete some college
credits in order limit the number of filed complaints, it might benefit a police department to
mandate some college for their employees. Other researchers such as Sanderson, Cohen, and
Chaiken only used male police officers to test for their research about the effects of higher
education on police performance. Since they only used males for their research, their research is
could be considered bias and has differed and varied a lot since then. Manis, Archbold, and
Hassel found that officers without four-year degrees are more likely to receive a greater number
of formal complaints than officers without a degree (Manis, Archbold, & Hassel, 2009). That
study has some relevancy, but Archbold, Manis, and Hassel didnt test all of the levels of
education they only tested a four-year degree vs. no degree. With having read their findings, I
would still make the case that some college for police officers helps, but it doesnt matter how
much they complete.
Furthermore, I also studied about a study that was done exclusively with officers in
Minnesota. Minnesota has had a two-year degree requirement for new police officers for over 30
years (Hilal and Erickson, 2010). As of 2003, only nine percent of police departments in the U.S.
require a two-year degree and only 1 percent of police departments require a four-year degree
(Hilal and Erickson, 2010). After multiple studies, legislation found that having a two-year
degree requirement would be better than having a four-year degree requirement. Using data
from a 2010 study as a comparison, Hilal and Erickson found that Minnesota officers appeared
more educated than the rest of the population in the state (Hilal and Erickson, 2010). Since
other police departments have seen the success of the officers in Minnesota, there have been
more incentive to offer tuition reimbursement for police officers. In a 2008 survey, 52 percent of
officers admitted that they had received some tuition reimbursement, but in the 1992 survey, only
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Do Police Officers Need a College Education?

37 percent of officers claimed they had received tuition reimbursement from their police
department (Hilal and Erickson, 2010). From reading these studies, I believe that offering tuition
reimbursement is great for the morale of a police department, but shouldnt be a requirement. Its
a nice bonus to offer tuition reimbursement for police officers, but they have been persistent
about protecting and serving the general population without having a national mandated law
stating that police officers need to have a college education. If there was a requirement for
college education for every police department in every state in the U.S., then whos to say it
might decrease the number of aspiring police officers? The last thing we need in this country is a
shortage of men and women protecting the general public.
Finally, I researched a study done by Hilal and Densley. In their study, they found out that
it costs $7,703 to achieve a two-year degree and it costs 15,104 to achieve a four-year degree
(Hilal and Densley, 2013). A lot of police officers are stuck paying their whole tuition costs out
of pocket. Its great that police officers are able to make that sacrifice, but itd be helpful for
them to receive some college reimbursement The study maintained that police officers have
more formal education and take more college classes than the nation as a whole, although not
required to do so for hiring purposes. Career advancement may be the reason (Hilal, et al, 2013,
p. 2).
After reading about all of these studies, Ive come to believe that college education is
great for police officers and affects their persona on the job, but Im not convinced that the
amount of college makes a tremendous difference. I do feel that police officers should be given
tuition reimbursement nationwide. Tuition reimbursement would be a great incentive for officers
that would like to advance in their career, but cant afford to go to college, in doing so. I also feel

Do Police Officers Need a College Education?

that going to college better cultures people -the more you know about someone, the better you
can understand their situation.
Sources:
Manis, Jennifer, Carol A. Archbold, and Kimberly D. Hassell. "Exploring the Impact of Police
Officer Education Level on Allegations of Police Misconduct." International Journal of Police
Science & Management 10.4 (2008): 509-23. Print
Hillal, S., & Erickson, T. (2010). The Minnesota Police Education Requirement, 17-21.
Hilal, Susan, and James Densley. "Higher Education and Local Law Enforcement." FBI Law
Enforcement Bulletin 82.5 (2013): 1-3. Print.