Should Police Officers be Required to have College Education
Yes, Absolutely. I think that Police Officers should be required to have a college education. Having an education is a very valuable tool when on the job especially in the line of police work.
No training can prepare a police officer for every situation they might face but being well educated might be a useful tool and affect how they react in certain situations. Police Officers also are involved in writing many reports and a high school English class does not give the officer the necessary guidance to articulate the actual events very well in their reports. Lastly, police officers are often looked to as a beacon in the community and a good role model. For that reason alone we should require a higher education, just for the fact of being a good role model. Police offers are also held to a higher level in society and with greater power comes greater responsibility.
Police Officers are often put into situations where they need quick thinking in order to respond best to the situation presented. Having a wide knowledge of many different areas such as a college education provides it allows the police officer to use that information to make the best decision. College usually exposes students to knowledge they would not seek out on their own. It’s just a good idea to have well educated people involved when presenting life and death situations and when dealing with peoples liberty.
Officers are involved in writing up and documenting many reports and filing evidence and such. They need to have the skills necessary to document their findings. Often a police officer’s report of an incident or crime is what will make or break that case. So if we have a bunch of uneducated people writing reports that don’t make sense or are unclear then it could lead to guilty people getting free.
Lastly I think that officers should have college education just for the fact that it’s better to have it then to not. Officers are held to a higher standard in society and seen as above regular citizens and for that reason they should be required to have higher education. Plus many kids look up to police officers as an example and by them having a college degree it sets a good example for our future police officers to want to get a good education.
