Posted: 3/28/2012 7:22:59 PM EDT
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In the last 24hrs here in GD I have read 4 threads where the police have been in the wrong and or screwed up. I think what most people forget is that we don't hear about the thousands of instances where the police were in the right, because, that is normal. And in the majority of instances that I read where the police are in the wrong it is usually rookies, or police with very little experience. So it got me thinking:
In the 1980's to be a police officer you had to be a high school graduate, and go to a school for a few months to get certified to be a police officer. Over the course of the last 30y we have increased the minimum standards (college degree), and increased the certification criteria. But from most job postings I see, they just want a bachelor's degree...they don't care what you majored in. Should there be a requirement of a criminal justice degree, or some other degree that educates potential officers better than a degree in basket weaving and a 1y certification course? It seems that veteran officers through on the job experience, and continuing education specifically targeted at police officers, make far less mistakes. Perhaps it is time to change the standards a bit. Not increase them, just focus them.... |
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Agreed. But there is that pesky thing called AA. Jus Say'in. Ok...all AA means to me is Alcoholics Anonymous...and Google isn't helping me much here either. Affirmative Action. Duh Now bring on the hordes calling me racist... Even with Affirmative Action you would still be hiring someone who was trained/educated better if the standards were higher. |
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In the last 24hrs here in GD I have read 4 threads where the police have been in the wrong and or screwed up. I think what most people forget is that we don't hear about the thousands of instances where the police were in the right, because, that is normal. And in the majority of instances that I read where the police are in the wrong it is usually rookies, or police with very little experience. So it got me thinking: In the 1980's to be a police officer you had to be a high school graduate, and go to a school for a few months to get certified to be a police officer. Over the course of the last 30y we have increased the minimum standards (college degree), and increased the certification criteria. But from most job postings I see, they just want a bachelor's degree...they don't care what you majored in. Should there be a requirement of a criminal justice degree, or some other degree that educates potential officers better than a degree in basket weaving and a 1y certification course? It seems that veteran officers through on the job experience, and continuing education specifically targeted at police officers, make far less mistakes. Perhaps it is time to change the standards a bit. Not increase them, just focus them.... With regards to standards... Even though you are right in that college degrees are now required for a lot of places. Some PDs / agencies still only require a H.S. Diploma, some military or college.. or combination of both. There is also more accountability these days than 'back then'. Between video, audio, the internet... everything is now "out in the open". Some mental midgets long for the "Good old days" of police work. Ya know... where beating the crap out of people was a common practice that they got away with. Or the "dial a drunk" machine for people suspected of drunk driving. Passed the sobriety tests and had a reading of .03% ? Let me change that... there we go, .12% ! |
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Agreed. But there is that pesky thing called AA. Jus Say'in. Ok...all AA means to me is Alcoholics Anonymous...and Google isn't helping me much here either. Affirmative Action. Duh Now bring on the hordes calling me racist... Even with Affirmative Action you would still be hiring someone who was trained/educated better if the standards were higher. Not if those individuals who fit into the A.A. category couldn't fit those high standards and lawsuits were threatened... |
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Have you actually looked at a criminal justice curriculum? It's one of the easier majors. +1 CJ degrees are not even valued by the LEO community...at least not over other degrees. I always recommend someone choose something else if they pursue a job in LE, especially as they may decide to leave and pursue a different career in the future. |
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Have you actually looked at a criminal justice curriculum? It's one of the easier majors. +1 CJ degrees are not even valued by the LEO community...at least not over other degrees. I always recommend someone choose something else who wants to get into LE especially if they decide to leave and pursue a different career in the future. I advise people the same thing, plus PDs like diversity in their guys. Different backgrounds. They teach you the CJ in the academy anyway... |
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Have you actually looked at a criminal justice curriculum? It's one of the easier majors. +1 CJ degrees are not even valued by the LEO community...at least not over other degrees. I always recommend someone choose something else who wants to get into LE especially if they decide to leave and pursue a different career in the future. I advise people the same thing, plus PDs like diversity in their guys. Different backgrounds. They teach you the CJ in the academy anyway... That's the problem...it's not enough. Either that, or it is enough and the academies are graduating people who should be failing.... 
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Have you actually looked at a criminal justice curriculum? It's one of the easier majors. +1 CJ degrees are not even valued by the LEO community...at least not over other degrees. I always recommend someone choose something else who wants to get into LE especially if they decide to leave and pursue a different career in the future. I advise people the same thing, plus PDs like diversity in their guys. Different backgrounds. They teach you the CJ in the academy anyway... That's the problem...it's not enough. Either that, or it is enough and the academies are graduating people who should be failing.... They only teach you so much in CJ, or the academy. Criminal law was easy for me to understand. Search and Seizure was easy for me to understand, because I started from a fresh point when big cases were coming out. The older guys? They had to change their ways of thinking. |
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Have you actually looked at a criminal justice curriculum? It's one of the easier majors. +1 CJ degrees are not even valued by the LEO community...at least not over other degrees. I always recommend someone choose something else who wants to get into LE especially if they decide to leave and pursue a different career in the future. I advise people the same thing, plus PDs like diversity in their guys. Different backgrounds. They teach you the CJ in the academy anyway... That's the problem...it's not enough. Either that, or it is enough and the academies are graduating people who should be failing.... You only learn enough at the academy to get you killed.  The real learning comes from the FTO, and on the job training. What is the problem anyway? No profession is perfect. You are always going to have some bad apples and incompetence no matter how diligent the training, curriculum, etc.
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Have you actually looked at a criminal justice curriculum? It's one of the easier majors. +1 CJ degrees are not even valued by the LEO community...at least not over other degrees. I always recommend someone choose something else who wants to get into LE especially if they decide to leave and pursue a different career in the future. I advise people the same thing, plus PDs like diversity in their guys. Different backgrounds. They teach you the CJ in the academy anyway... That's the problem...it's not enough. Either that, or it is enough and the academies are graduating people who should be failing.... Its more like... people that have never taken a criminal justice class think the cops are bad at their jobs because they themselves think they know more than they do. |
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Have you actually looked at a criminal justice curriculum? It's one of the easier majors. +1 CJ degrees are not even valued by the LEO community...at least not over other degrees. I always recommend someone choose something else if they pursue a job in LE, especially as they may decide to leave and pursue a different career in the future. Im a cop. Dont get a CJ degree like me. You can do the same job and have more flexibility with most any other degree. |
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Have you actually looked at a criminal justice curriculum? It's one of the easier majors. +1 CJ degrees are not even valued by the LEO community...at least not over other degrees. I always recommend someone choose something else if they pursue a job in LE, especially as they may decide to leave and pursue a different career in the future. Im a cop. Dont get a CJ degree like me. You can do the same job and have more flexibility with most any other degree. I tell the kids in my CJ classes to change majors
I'm only working on a CJ degree because my professors are more sympathetic if I have to leave class or not show up because or work. |
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A criminal justice degree (I have one) doesn't relate to being a cop in 99% of circumstance.
It's good to know certain supreme court cases and such I suppose but it's mind-boggling how far-removed it seems to be most of the time. For me, a lot of it seemed to be about criminology and other nonsense theory that won't take you very far on the street. It would be time better spent learning survival skills, people skills, nuances to reach the end goal in situations you'll find yourself in. In some ways I felt ill-prepared compared to those with 2-yr "Law Enforcement" degree training when the rubber met the road come academy time. Yeah, I know somewhat obscure things about DNA and know when I will need to put certain evidence in a paint can as opposed to a brown paper bag but I got more-or-less the same education a pre-law type might get. I feel I'm ahead of the curve in some manners as I've spent time on the internet reading things and learning things related to search & seizure due to my being a pretty die-hard civil libertarian. I could've survived 99.7% of traffic stops with what I've learned on my own before my bonafide-LE training but I can't say the same for all of my classmates. Giving a cop the same base education as a probation officer is shorting them both IMO. |
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Here one bad apple does spoil the whole bunch.
Some idiot will do something liberal and stupid up in San Francisco and someone will call for the death of every Californian. Yes, it is a well known fact that only stupid liberals live in San Francisco - now that they'll out of New York, Washington DC, and Chicago there are only the ones left in California. A hundred stupid things can happen elsewhere but nobody fucking cares at all because it didn't happen here. When a copy beats his wife it's headline news ... but when a taxi driver, a farmer, or plumber does nobody cares at all. The bias against the police is completely irrational. Of course we should care equally for the beaten wife of the farmer as we do for the cop and hold both men in contempt for doing the beating ... nope. |