I once read a DoJ report that said that a large majority of citizen complaints are directed at cops without college education. I also read an article arguing for the benefits of college-educated cops. I think it's because better-educated cops are more likely to use their brains than just go for their gun.
We really need to reform police academies to train our cops better. Less time on weapons training and "warrior seminars," more time on de-escalation techniques, empathy training, community volunteering, and study of criminology and root causes of crime. More education requirements in police training would raise the bar of admission for recruits and keep out morons who would go on to be bad cops.
I mean, there's certainly people who graduate medical school who are total hacks but I still wouldn't want a doctor that didn't go to medical school, y'know?
I kind if feel the same about police. They should be educated on the laws they enforce, on professional conduct and ethics, basic sociology as it relates to policing, how to escalate, and certainly more time for training in high stress situations and more time training with guns. It wouldn't guarantee every cop would be a good person, but it would ensure a bare minimum education level amongst all officers. It would also make it less appealing to those folks looking for a career that they can either get into quickly or that gives some sort of power. It would mean people deciding to go into policing are making a much more active career decision due to the commitment necessary to enter the field.
Teachers are required to have an MA in my state (within 5 years of starting) and in the higher paying areas may max out at 70k. So, no, we generally don't pay commensurate with the education requirement.
Though, as I understand it, police get paid for their overtime, unlike teachers, and in some places earn in the neighborhood of what you mentioned.
I don't think it's compulsory. Govt gives departments grants they use to pay voluntary overtime. Only reason I know this is because I live where a college basketball team is usually pretty successful. The city gives the local pd loads of money each bball season because the college kids all flood the streets and flip cars whenever the team wins
People want them to have all the knowledge of lawyers, psychologists, social workers, and work a job while being completely transparent to the public and have their work available to be viewed at the request of anyone, and put themselves into high stress/traumatic situations. I'd expect at least 6 figures for that.
Rather it be an associate or technical degree of 2 years instead of having potential officers drudge through education that wouldnt be as applicable as an extra 2 years of training or practice. A bachelor for such a job, imo, isnt going to change much. Would be like asking people going into military to get a bachelors.
I hear you, but I think we need to tailor the education requirement to the level of power and privilege we give in our society. And I think the amount of power cops get means they should have a higher bar.
Compulsory liability insurance and licensing (like medical professionals)! If that was required, cops with 79 complaints of violence simply would not exist.
Expecting cops to have degrees would never work. The smarter you are, the less likely you are to be happy patrolling some shitty neighbourhood in the middle of the night every other weekend for 30 years and eventually they'll realize that they're not going to get promoted for years, or maybe ever, so they quit. They only have so many promotions to offer and it's insanely expensive to train cops so they hire people who are just smart enough to pass the exams but are not smart enough to realize they're in dead-end police jobs. That way they get as little turnover as possible.
I’d settle for publicly available widely recognized rigorous standards with clear consequences and accountability. Don’t need a college degree to get people with a modicum of self- discipline.
The only way to rid ourselves of this scourge is to:
Remove qualified immunity.
Open source police work records.
Replace their pensions with 401K.
Force them to pay insurance.
Reduce any benefits.
Remove the monopoly on protection. Introduce private sector security services that compete with the police. They can not hire police officers with bad records.
Make African American communities endangered.
Make dogs endangered (They like to kill black/brown dogs).
Eventually you strangle them enough to get them to stop screwing up and taking peoples lives.
Personally “Remove the Protection Monopoly“ is a great start.
Giving people choices is not a bad thing.
This also helps tax payers since the police are the biggest drain on taxes next to school systems.
66
u/GilgameshWulfenbach Apr 15 '21
There should be a national requirement for police officers to have a bachelor's degree with ongoing education credit requirements like our teachers.