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Michael Rauch

CJ-1010-500-F17

Professor John Hill

9th December 2017

Higher Education and Police Officers

Should police officers be required to have a college degree or some sort of higher education

outside of high school? We will be taking an objective look as to why they should be required to have a

higher education. There are some well researched statistical evidence that support a higher education

for officers, such as they have a significantly lower chance of using force, lower levels of required

discipline, and lower levels of corruption. Having a higher education opens doors in terms of pay and

jobs as well.

Officers with a college degree are less likely to use force. A study done in 2008 showed that in

California officers without a college degree were 41% more likely discharge their firearm when

compared to officers with one (McElvain and Kposowa). This was found using data from 186 officer

involved shootings. A study in 2010 had observers ride along with 322 different officers over 2,800-

2900 hours, witnessing 11,985 civilian encounters in the two cities of St. Petersburg and Indianapolis.

Of those 11,985 encounters, 3,356 of them became the officer-suspect encounters that were analyzed

(Jason Rydeburg and William Terrel, 131). In those encounters four year graduates arrested 16.2% and

high school or less arrested 15.4%, a negligible amount, showing no notable difference in arrests. In the

same encounters four year graduates used force, defined as acts that threaten or inflict physical harm

on citizens. (101), in 56.7% of encounters while officers with high school or less used force in 67.8%

encounters. This shows that officers without any higher education is 16.4% more likely to use force.

Jason Rydeburg and William Terral speculate that this difference is due to an educations effect on

discretion, something that officers must use a significant amount of. As to why arrests are not affected
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it is speculated that it is due to an arrest being the end of the encounter while force is generally used as

a means to the end of the encounter.

Officers with college degrees require less discipline and are less corruptible. A case study done

from 1997 to 2002 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police found that police officers with

no higher education accounted for 75% of all disciplinary action while those with four year degrees

accounted for 11%. One might say that this is due to the difference in people having college degrees,

maybe a similar ratio of only 11% of officers might have a higher education, but in the same case study

it is estimated that approximately 25-30% of the roughly 700,000 officers in the nation have higher

education so the difference is definitely not the amount of people with degrees. In a New York Post a

Dr. Gerald W. Lynch responded to a previous NY Post and in his response he gave the following

information, For example, of the police officers arrested for corrupt acts over the last four years, 86

percent of them would not have even been hired in the first place under these new standards., those

new standards being 22 as the minimum age, 60 college credits, or an Honorary Discharge from the

military (Gerald W. Lynch).

Officers with college degrees make more money. Just out of principle police officers get paid

more, even straight out of police academy. The Columbus Police Department pays officers $904 dollars

more on base salary and if you have a four year degree you get $1,594.77 as an educational bonus

(Starting Salaries - Patrol Officer). The Dallas PD pays $3,600 dollars more for a four year degree

(Salary/Benefits). The Los Angeles PD pays $2,631 more for any college education (LAPD Annual

Salaries). Just based on this information alone should be personal incentive to get a degree.

Officers should be required and should be personally invested in having a college degree. The

fact that they get paid more should be enough on its own for personal reasons and the safety and social

reasons as well. Based on how non-college-degree holders are significantly more likely to use force and
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to discharge their firearm is damning evidence for the reason to implement higher education standards

in police officers.
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Works Cited

Gerald W Lynch, Dr. Police Officers Need College Training. New York Post, 14 Feb. 1996, pp. 26.

LAPD Annual Salaries. City of Los Angeles Personnel Department, Personnel Department of Los

Angeles, January 2015, https://per.lacity.org/psb/lapd_salary.htm

Mayo L. College Education and Policing. The Police Chief, August. 2006

McElvain J P., and Kposowa A J. Police officer characteristics and the likelihood of using deadly

force.Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2008, pp. 35, 505521.

Rydeburg, Jason, and William Terrel. The Effect of Higher Education on Police Behavior.Police

Quarterly, 3 Jan. 2010, pp. 93131., doi:10.1177/1098611109357325.

Salary/Benefits. Dallas Police Department, Dallas Police Department,

http://www.dallaspolice.net/joindpd/Pages/SalaryBenefits.aspx

Starting Salaries - Patrol Officer.Protect Columbus, The Columbus, Georgia Police Department, 27

Jan. 2017, www.protectcolumbus.com/Salary.htm.