Policing VII: Education

In Germany, minimum standards for police education require two and a half years of education, and often require four years. In some places in the US, you can be a police officer with less than half a year of training.

As things are right now, we expect a lot from our police officers. They are asked to lead the response to a wide variety of complex situations involving domestic violence, mental health, substance abuse, motor vehicle accidents, and more. While I support efforts to bring additional fields of expertise in these situations -- especially when it can be done as a preventative measure -- the truth remains that responding to a mandate as large as this requires a lot of training, as well as a lot of support after the training. From what I can see, we could do better at both in the US.

Given the very wide-ranging mandate we give our police in the US, a four-year post-high-school training period does not seem unreasonable to me. Police officers deal with complex and diverse situations, they should be given a broad range of tools to understand and address those situations. Further, completing a sustained course of specialist study both indicates and develops a degree of self-discipline that I think is an appropriate expectation for the job. On the face of it, good policing is a high-level calling -- there is no reason I can think to expect it should require, for example, a dramatically lower standard of education than we require of public school teachers.

In Germany, one factor that motivates their curriculum is looking at the role policing played in the rise of naziism. As a result, the curriculum includes specific training on empathy for minority and disadvantaged groups. And still they have some problems with holocaust deniers. If the US had a similar longer-term training process, how would we be able to ensure it did not inculcate the very attitudes we seek to diminish over time? It's an important question and, in truth, I don't have a complete answer. I'll touch on some partial ideas tomorrow, but I think it's fair to note that we have the same concern with any educationally-based credentialing system -- doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc., all benefit from successfully addressing this issue. 

It's my point of view, which I recognize I'm asserting without proof, that: 1) we should give police more tools and techniques for resolving conflict without violence; 2) continued progress in drawing police from communities they serve is worthwhile; 3) increasing empathy by police for the community they serve is part of what a good educational system can do. These are high-level goals, and are worth continued investment.