College Education Discussion

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

I have previously written blogs about the various value to be found in police recruits that have a college education versus military experience. This morning, in sorting through news stories and checking out forum discussions on Officer.com, I discovered two related topics and felt the need to discuss them a tad. The first item was a news story about how many colleges don't give sufficient credit - or even consideration - to the military's training and experience. One case noted was that of a veteran who had been serving in a nuclear engineering position in the Navy only to find himself HELPING the teacher in a college class. Why? Because the college's curriculum was so far behind the current best knowledge and practices as taught by military training and experience. If that's the case, then a strong argument can be made for the increased value of said training and experience. Let's face it: actually operational experience is hard to beat when it comes to increasing applied knowledge. The second item was a discussion about community and state colleges that offered law enforcement academy programs and how they were viewed by law enforcement agencies. More specifically, how the graduates of such programs were viewed. The conversation arose out of whether or not graduates from a specific community college "municipal academy" were viable candidates. That in itself boils down to how much respect the surrounding agencies have for the "academy" and its staff. The one thing that seemed to escape the discussion was the fact that any college-attached municipal academy is, first and foremost, a profit generating tool for the college; otherwise it would not exist. As such, it may accept students that are not viable law enforcement candidates due to whatever in their medical, academic or criminal background. Do you think the college is going to turn them away? Absolutely not. If the student can pass the most basic of background checks - even if they wouldn't pass one for a law enforcement agency - then the college is happy to take their money and put them through the training. To my way of thinking, this amounts to unethical policy on the part of the college that sells classes to the student, milking an unrealistic hope on the student's part, of a career in law enforcement. What do you all think?