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When Joan Bauer started her law enforcement career at 21, her police academy training and experience would have qualified her to move up in the ranks.
Yet, 26 years later, “I’m at a standstill of where I can go and there are younger officers who are moving up around me,” Bauer said.
Bauer, who trains police officers in Ohio, wants to secure a position as an investigator and knew she’d need a college degree to do that. So, she earned a bachelor's degree online in Criminal Justice from New England College in 2016.
Bauer knows that going through the police academy is no longer enough for officers aspiring to supervisory roles and other positions.
“A lot of times in police work, years ago you didn’t need to have a degree, and things are changing. And I think it’s a good example for young police officers, for education, not to stop there, and stop at just the police academy,” she said.
Although many local law enforcement agencies do not require applicants to have a college degree, police departments in larger cities have started mandating that new hires possess an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree or some college coursework.
A 2015 Bureau of Justice Statistics report showed that in 2013, 32% of police departments required new hires to have some college education, and 23% of local law enforcement professionals were employed for agencies that required at least a two-year degree.
Law enforcement expert, certified police officer, and New England College criminal justice professor, Frank Jones, said officers with a college degree tend to be better at their job.
“Enhanced skills in areas like writing, communication, research, and time management help officers really connect with their very broad and diverse constituency base,” Jones said. “Other learned expertise supports specific job functions in dealing with probable cause, reasonable suspicion, Fourth Amendment applications to search and seizure, laws of arrest, criminal investigation, causes of crime, the functions of the justice system, dealing with offenders, and more.”
Career advancement is a logical reason for law enforcement officers to seek college education. A 2013 study of police officers in Minnesota and Arizona that appeared in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin reported 48% of police officers in those states have a four-year degree. The study also found that 48% of officers who had been taking college courses after being hired on at a police department did so for career advancement purposes.
Jones said the advanced knowledge that comes with a college degree makes “police officers more promotable. Today nearly all law enforcement organizations require a degree with a minimum of 60-credit hours from a fully accredited source of higher education.”
“As a new officer moves up the chain of command, more educational achievement is desired from both an academic and job task perspective (i.e., academy and specialized training),” Jones said. “To earn a command staff ranking, an officer must have a baccalaureate level baseline of academic achievement and at least some graduate level work or degree.”
Possessing a bachelor’s degree has provided a credibility boost for Bauer in her role training officers.
“I stand in front of a group of men and women who are already police officers. They're not learning just the basics, they’re learning advanced training,” Bauer said. “For me to be able to stand in front of them and have a degree behind me, and show them that I am educated in all the things that I’m talking about helps tremendously, and it also gives some of them the desire to go back to school.”
“The day of just turning 21 and going through a police academy, that’s not enough anymore. Times are changing and you’re going to get passed up,” Bauer said.
