# Should college Degrees be required to be a P.O.?



## epd408 (Oct 14, 2002)

Anyone heard this that this state is now tring to pass a bill to make it mandatory to have a degree in order to become a Police officer in this State? Also if so what do you think the chances of this bill passing are? or any exceptions that there may be to having a degree? Just curious to see what others out here think.


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## Crvtte65 (May 19, 2002)

As a one pursuing a degree now I say it's helpful to expand knowledge and yet somethings (obviously) are never taught at a college. I would vote not mandatory but keep it as it is, incentives to those that do.


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## bjm (Jan 4, 2003)

Personally I am undecided if a college degree should be required. There are many arguments for and against it but if it does become a requirement I think many people that could become great police officers would not get the chance. You have to think about people that are in the military. If someone is in the military and after getting out they then have to go get a degree to become a police officer that could take a lot of years out of their lives before they could even apply. With age limits in some cities and towns that doesn't leave too much time to get on a department and as we all know getting on a department is a big waiting game and can take some years. If it remains the same and you don't need a college degree I think officers with degree should receive a little extra pay. Like other people have said, maybe they could revamp the Quinn Bill benefits and put a cap on how much you can make.


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## Officer Dunngeon (Aug 16, 2002)

:thumbup: I agree with MT1, my feelings exactly.


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## Gil (Jun 15, 1998)

*Re: Should college Degrees be required to be a P.O.? NFW!*

It does not take a person with a college degree to preform the functions of a patrolman. It takes common sense, discretion and a cool head.

I think you would loose out on a allot of good patrolman if that was the case. I hope it never comes to that.


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## tomahawk (May 1, 2002)

MT1/Dungie/Gil,

As usual, you are all on the money. And this is coming from a guy with a bachelor's degree from a $35k/year school! Police work is more common sense than book smarts. A degree does not hurt, but a cop with a degree is by no means a "better" cop because he has that piece of paper. There are plenty of great cops without degrees out there.

I also think fixed Quinn incentives might be a better idea as well. Sure, I would love to pull in $25k/year extra just because I have a degree, but how about we save the program and set fixed bonuses (i.e. $3k/AS, $8k/BS, $12k/MS) instead. Seems like a reasonable compromise between the officers and the budget crunch.

-Mike


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## q5_po (Aug 23, 2002)

2 words; F%*K NO!


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## drewpopo (Dec 21, 2002)

In my opinon a degree should not be required, however you can't go wrong with more education.


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## j809 (Jul 5, 2002)

The reason the state is trying to implement the four year degree requirement is because it would be easy to eliminate the quinn bill. The good thing is that base salaries will jump allot but there will be no incentives for advanced degree, unless those departments have their own incentives. I have an acquaintance that is a police sergeant in Connecticut and his base salary is $69K, while patrol officers are $55K maxed out. If you have a master's degree you get another 2K a year. So it works out the same but it will eliminate alot of people from entry level positions.


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## epd408 (Oct 14, 2002)

JB 1911 do you or anyone else on this board know the exacts of this bill, do you know if they are planning on doing what alot of other agencys have done that now require a degree and willing to let the canidate sub military time for a college degree? and is it proposed to be a four year degree required to get on the job? also what is the bill number or a place were you can read the proposed bill?


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## John J (Jul 18, 2002)

I am not saying that I agree with it, but it seems like other states are going in that direction as well. For example, NYPD requires 60 college credits before you can apply, and some other departments I have applied to in CA and FL also require at least an associates degree.


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## ecpd402 (Sep 18, 2002)

If I can put my 2 cents in. Yes most great police officers don't have a degree. But a Police Officer is a professional job. Most individuals in professional jobs have degrees. In the FBI the majority of agents have degrees. I know good Police Officers that don't have degrees. EPD408 he is a outstanding officer and has no degree. But I have to say in my opinion you should have a Assoc Degree (2yr) or Military experiance. The reason why are Knowledge is power a degree in Criminal Justice give you a good inside in police work. I know you can't apply a degree to the street but treat a degree like the academy Its a necessary evil. I was told when I left the academy take what you learn and throw it out the door. you can't do that because the laws I learned are necessary. When I was in college I got valuable information that helps mein todays job. In closing where in a professional job a degree cant hurt only help.
Stay Safe :wink:


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## LeadDog17 (May 3, 2002)

ecpd402 said:


> If I can put my 2 cents in. Yes most great police officers don't have a degree. But a Police Officer is a professional job. Most individuals in professional jobs have degrees. In the FBI the majority of agents have degrees.


FBI is sort of a different ball game - in fact, you can't even enter now unless you have a degree.
They require:
a) any 4 year degree plus 3 years full time work experience
b) law degree
c) computer science degree or CCNP/CCIE
d) accounting degree/finance degree and qualified to become a CPA
e) any 4 year degree plus foreign language proficiency in a critical area (Arabic, Farsi, Pashtu, Urdu, Chinese [all dialects], Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese)

Don't forget, they are getting people to fill specific investigative areas and NEED those critical skills on top of everything else.

Anyway - I think I'm with everyone else on the degree issue. You certainly should NOT need one to be a PO. I've met some pretty stupid PO's who have been to college and some outstanding PO's who haven't. Having a degree does not make you more intelligent than someone without one!

-Eric


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## Irish Wampanoag (Apr 6, 2003)

I think POs should have at least an associates degree before they are even hired. In this state there are more then enough people who are college educated who want the job. If you do not agree with this then you can not agree with the quin bill. The quin bill was developed to make police work a profession and the money aspect was an incentive for officer to obtain a college degree.


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## mpd61 (Aug 7, 2002)

BHCCPD said:


> I think POs should have at least an associates degree before they are even hired. In this state there are more then enough people who are college educated who want the job. If you do not agree with this then you can not agree with the quin bill. The quin bill was developed to make police work a profession and the money aspect was an incentive for officer to obtain a college degree.


Hey now! You are all over the board on this one. I have a Bachelors that was obtained eleven (11) years after I started full time in L.E. I am still the same cop, just a tiny bit more articulate.

You should NOT have to have a college degree first to be a cop. And I am for a new flat-rate version of Quinn. For the record, my job has no Quinn benefit. In closing I think that police work was a "profession" long before the Quinn bill. Choose your words carefully or some people may be confused or insulted.


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## Tackleberry22 (Dec 21, 2002)

:-k I'll throw my 2 cents in on this one. Make it mandatory that for an entry level police officer position, one should have at least an Associates degree. College is meant to develope or fine tune a person's critical thinking skills. Granted most of the street dealt issues are based on common sense. However, there are issues that arise when critical thinking comes to the forefront. 
You may not use much of your college education on the street, but it is or can be used a lot when in court. The more education you have the better off you are. 
If you look at the over all picture now, most of the younger generation of police officers coming into the system will or already have college degrees. I think in the near future a great majority of the population will have college degrees before becoming a police officer. Most kids are being told to go to college for a better future. Might as well make it mandatory. Probably 3/4 of the way there;


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## Burner1 (Jul 30, 2002)

There is currently no data that supports the theory a degree in this field "makes" a better police officer; empirical or otherwise. The job description itself only requires a high school diploma. "The Job" is not rocket science. Ninety-nine(99) percent of the time it is common sense and the other one(1) percent is actually applying the laws learned in the police academy. The material that is learned in the academy is not all that difficult, so there is no reason to make the aforementioned a requirement. Just to say you have a college educated officer is not an excuse to fill the requirement. My former department relished in the fact that per capita, we had the highest ratio of degrees to officers in the state. I do not know how they found that figure. Basically, it meant that if you did not have a degree, your not being hired. My partner (who sued to get on) on the other hand, had only a high school diploma. He performed the job magnificently. A little "off-topic", but Masstroopers1 you bring up an amusing, but sad parody. Anyone ever watch Jay Leno's "Jaywalking?" What are these people learning in our schools today? Grammar and spelling seems to be some of the least of our worries!


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## Macop (May 2, 2002)

A college degree does not make you any beeter or worst a Police Officer. I think Police Officers should have degrees, but a requirement, hell no. Wisconsin is the only state I can think that has a actual law stating that you have to have at least a Associates or Bachelors, I forget I'll try to find it and post it. I do beileve it only applies to city/town Pds.


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## Dr.Magoo (May 2, 2002)

Under no circumstance should it be a requirement to have a degree to get on this job. I've seen some excellent cops who only had high school diplomas and I've seen bad cops with Masters degrees and vice versa. I firmly believe a well educated police force is beneficial to the department and to the community. But, to automatically exempt someone because they do not have a degree at the time they are hired would be ludicrous. You would lose out on many excellent candidates. Hell, I would probably be doing something else right now if that were the case. Since all I had was a HS diploma when I started and was working on my BS degree, then my MA degree.


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## tomahawk (May 1, 2002)

Just to chime in once more, since I have an additional thought on my original post that seems to echo among many other members...

I know *many* excellent police officers who have nothing more than a high school diploma. I also know a few *terrible* police officers who have a Masters. One in particular comes to mind that tends to be borderline embarrassing to his/her department. That's what happens when you go to a "diploma mill" and you do not attend a damn class and your spouse does the required work to get you through. :BM:

I hate when the actions of a select few ruin it for everyone else!! :up:

-Mike


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## Irish Wampanoag (Apr 6, 2003)

Everyone who thinks a college degree means nothing in improving police work or the police profession better not let you Legislator reps or senate know about it because there goes the Quin Bill and your cash cow.


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## j809 (Jul 5, 2002)

This topic is old and has been revisited numerous times. The issue of this topic was "Will the state require a B.S. degree for entry level police officer positions?". Now we took that question and reached other avenues "Should a police officer have a degree". Please give it a rest and either answer the original question or close the topic. :BM:


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