{"id":8135,"date":"2023-12-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=8135"},"modified":"2023-11-28T11:29:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T16:29:57","slug":"do-we-need-college-trained-cops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/do-we-need-college-trained-cops\/","title":{"rendered":"DO WE NEED COLLEGE-TRAINED COPS?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Because I\u2019m the only one of Backwoods Home\u2019s <\/em>writers with a law enforcement background, I sort of wound up by default being the resident writer on criminal justice issues. Forty-plus years sworn, part-time but for most of those years in a supervisory capacity over full- and part-time municipal officers alike. Nineteen years as chair of the firearms\/deadly force training committee for the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers, and a like period of time up through 2023 on the advisory board of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, and teaching for the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors \u2013 plus the research that led me to write countless articles in law enforcement professional journals and writing the Cop Talk column for American Handgunner magazine from 1977 to date, and teaching cops on four continents \u2013 have all given me lots <\/em>of input into the evolution of American police work up to the present situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they first pinned a badge on me in the early 1970s, it was a time when the watchword was \u201cWe\u2019re a profession, not just a job.\u201d Over the years, more and more police departments demanded a college degree \u2013 Associates usually acceptable, Bachelors degree preferred and sometimes demanded \u2013 as a baseline requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And rarely, if ever, did they specify a degree in Police Science or Criminal Justice! When I was hired by my first department as a Patrolman, or at my second as a Sergeant or my third as a Captain, neither of my two degrees ever came up. No one cared about the one diploma in Accounting or the other in Business Management (which, really, weren\u2019t <\/em>all that relevant to the tasks at hand). They cared if the candidate wanted to do the job and seemed competent to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was then. This is now. The wave of anti-police sentiment in the United States that became a tsunami in 2020 has led to a mass exodus of often-premature retirements and a dearth of qualified applicants, because it\u2019s human nature not to want a job in which you feel hated by those you serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should a college degree be required in the mid-2020s for police officers? My decades on The Job taught me that people skills and common sense were way <\/em>more important than \u201cbook learning,\u201d and I say that as someone who had his share of the latter. The late Col. Paul Doyon, then the superintendent of the New Hampshire State Police, told me something in the 1970s that I\u2019ve never forgotten: \u201cThe Job is not guns and badges. The Job is people!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d rather the 21-year-old who responds to my need for police service have four years in the military understanding discipline and following rules, or have spent four years working with the public, than one who spent the same amount of time earning a degree in liberal arts or, Heaven help us, \u201cSocial Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the excellent Calibre Press e-journal respected police trainer Jim Glennon recently asked the question \u201cDo cops need a college degree?\u201d You can read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cops from all over responded. You can read their comments here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I invite you readers to share YOUR opinions on the topic. You, after all, are the \u201cconsumers\u201d of the public service in question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because I\u2019m the only one of Backwoods Home\u2019s writers with a law enforcement background, I sort of wound up by default being the resident writer on criminal justice issues. Forty-plus years sworn, part-time but for most of those years in a supervisory capacity over full- and part-time municipal officers alike. Nineteen years as chair of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8136,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135\/revisions\/8136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}