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Some agencies have many more college-educated officers and some have many fewer. Let me first say that any single number in each of these cases doesn’t tell us anything because our nation’s departments are vast and different. A little more than half (51.8 percent) have a two-year degree, while 5.4 percent have a graduate degree. I am excited to announce that the results are in, which we are showing in our report, “Policing around the nation: Education, Philosophy, and Practice” – which we just released Thursday.Ībout one third (30.2 percent) of police officers in the United States have a four-year college degree. It was exciting because it encompassed departments of all sizes, including 842 which employ fewer than 250 officers and 116 which employ more than 250. I distributed surveys, which were completed by 958 agencies. About half of the agencies replied, and the results were intriguing, but I needed more.Īfter consulting with Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, we decided to work together and conduct a study of the entire nation. I started initially with a survey of all local law enforcement agencies in California. I knew right then and there that I must find it out.
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Nobody in the private sector had studied police officers and higher education with any depth in decades. The request seemed easy enough and off I went in search of the data that I was sure would show me that Orange County officers were in fact highly educated. But an editor challenged me on it, saying, “How do you know this? Please prove this statement.” Several years ago, I wrote an article based on my dissertation in which I made the comment that Orange County police officers were “particularly well-educated” - many with a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Associate professor of criminal justice, Cal State Fullerton