Few people, if any, would argue that education is unimportant. But, in law enforcement, it may be more important than ever—both for the individual careers of officers and for the field of public safety as a whole.
Numbers from the federal U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics show that, in 2013, 32 percent of local police officers worked in a department with a college requirement, compared with 16 percent in 1993. Also, in 2013, 23 percent of officers worked in a department that required entry-level officers to have a two-year degree, compared with 7 percent just a decade earlier.1
A few years earlier, a 2010 study published in the journal Police Quarterly found that college-educated officers were 12 percent less likely to use force than colleagues without a college education.2
According to at least one expert, the world of higher education has not always understood or catered to the distinct needs of the law enforcement community. However, with the advent of online classrooms and a new wealth of expertise, many institutions are working to change that—and this change couldn’t happen at a more critical time in law enforcement.
“The academic world has underserved the law enforcement community, sometimes in a dramatic way,” said Erik Fritsvold, academic coordinator and associate professor of the University of San Diego’s master of science program in law enforcement and public safety leadership. “We hope to right that historical wrong. Education is good for society; education is good for law enforcement. There’s cultural competence, better literacy. It’s hard to make a case that education is bad. There are multifaceted benefits.”3
Distance Learning
With society changing at a breakneck speed, training and education programs need to keep pace so their students can keep pace as well, regardless of which profession they will be entering.
“Times are changing the way law enforcement is having to work,” said Darrell Edmonds, online training program coordinator with the Institute of Police Technology and Management (IPTM) in Jacksonville, Florida. “[Officers need to know] how to adapt to the times and how to implement changes. As quickly as things are changing, with active shooters becoming more frequent, how does law enforcement respond to it, what are the responsibilities? There’s all kinds of things. When do you be more aggressive? What are the best procedures?”4
The IPTM offers roughly 75 courses in law enforcement topics ranging from active shooters in schools to seat belt examinations. Many of the courses focus on situations related to motor vehicles, including DUI and crash investigations. IPTM offers training both online and on its Florida campus. One advantage of online training, Edmonds said, is simple cost-effectiveness.
“Online, we have active shooter, DUI investigation, patrol function, and telecommunications, as in for dispatcher,” Edmonds said. “[Students] don’t need a travel or per diem bill. Life is pretty demanding these days. This way, they can sit down and do the work when they need to and then come back. This is where we see the market going.”5
Online learning involves more than a Skype connection and a chat room. The content and length of courses change based on the objectives of the courses, offering further flexibility on top of that which online distance education provides by its very nature.
“We have three types of [online] courses,” Edmonds noted. “A webinar, which lasts one to eight hours, where you move along at your own pace with access to a help forum where you post a question. There’s an instructor-led self-study course which is eight hours or more, where you go at your own pace but the instructor is present and available at different times. And then there are long-running courses that go a week or longer, with one eight-hour block of regular classroom training stretching out to one week.”6
Some might envision distance learning or online education has having a “drop in” quality. That’s not the case at institutions like the University of San Diego, which prides itself on elite training informed by a host of law enforcement professionals. Over a two-and-a-half-year process, the university rebuilt its law enforcement and public safety leadership program, making it rigorous for students while allowing learners to complete work on their own terms.
“Our program is unique because we listen first,” Fritsvold said. “We started with a more traditional program, and now we’re a cutting-edge program. There’s a deliverable due [from students] about every three days, but how they engage with the material is totally up to them. Someone working a graveyard shift as a corrections officer can do it one way, and someone with free afternoons can do it another way.”7
The San Diego program is informed not only by experts in law enforcement but also by those with expertise in learning technology and the science of learning. That combination ensures the online education platform provides information in a way that is both useful and effective.
“We have an in-house instructional design team who are experts in pedagogical strategy online,” Fritsvold said. “It’s essentially an online coach for the faculty. They translate teaching into an online format. We use videos, narrated PowerPoints, and weekly outcomes. There are reading assignments and assignments where you learn by doing.”8
University of San Diego courses can be easily modified to stay abreast of current trends. For example, in 2016, classes heavily focused on body-worn cameras and relevant laws. Now that those cameras are more widely available and better understood, courses have moved to newer technologies like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones).
“If we’re eight months out of date or four months out of date, that’s a problem,” Fritsvold observed. “We now have 100 alumni or so and several associations [giving us input]. We’re surrounded by expertise. Our course descriptions are viable but very broad, in case we need to throw something out and add a new component.”9
In the Classroom
Online learning is a popular new mode of learning, and understandably so—but that is not to say that traditional classroom learning doesn’t carry great value.
In three locations in Georgia, Georgia Piedmont Technical College has graduated roughly 300 students into law enforcement positions across the state. The college’s Law Enforcement Academy’s basic mandate program lasts 17 weeks. The typical Peace Officer and Standards and Training (POST) program requires 408 training hours, but the Georgia Piedmont Technical College’s program exceeds that requirement: students receive up to 744 training hours, including standardized field sobriety testing and Taser and baton training. After completing the program, graduates become POST-certified law enforcement officers in Georgia.
An in-person class provides hands-on learning that cannot be duplicated in an online environment, program leaders said. “They see an autopsy,” said Deputy Chief Beverly Thomas, dean of the college’s School of Public Safety and Legal Studies. “They go to the state supreme court to hear oral arguments; they participate in a mock trial with a prosecutor and the district attorney. We stress doing things a little differently. We teach driving, but we do so at night as well as during the day.”10
According to Thomas, the academy is the first in the state of Georgia to be accredited by CALEA, a credentialing body that recognizes elite law enforcement and public safety training programs. “Employers who hire our graduates say they’re much better prepared,” Thomas said.11
At the University of Louisville in Kentucky, the Southern Police Institute (SPI) offers both in-residence and distance learning, with both options offering different advantages to learners. The Administrative Officers Course (AOC) is a 12-week, 480-hour program designed to develop effective and technically competent law enforcement managers. Like all SPI courses and programs, AOC is designed to foster police leaders.
“Our program is leadership,” said Gennaro Vito, professor and chair of the university’s Department of Criminal Justice. “When they go through our program, they have 12 credits on management. The AOC is a management institute. We have courses on leadership, police administration, issues in policing. So, the entire program is designed to prepare students for leadership.”12
No matter where or how the training takes place, the best institutions are working to develop well-rounded officers and leaders who are ready for the world they will face after graduation.
“With times changing and with community policing and everything attached to that, that’s why SPI was formed,” Vito said. “That’s in our DNA.”13 ♦
Notes:
1Brian A. Reaves, Local Police Departments, 2013: Personnel, Policies, and Practices (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, May 2015), 7.
2Jason Rydberg and William Terrill, “The Effect of Higher Education on Police Behavior,” Police Quarterly 13, no. 1 (March 2010): 92–120.
3Erik Fritsvold (academic coordinator and associate professor, University of San Diego, law enforcement and public safety leadership), telephone interview, November 15, 2017.
4Darrell Edmonds (online training program coordinator, Institute of Police Technology and Management), telephone interview, November 13, 2017.
5Edmonds.
6Edmonds.
7Fritsvold, telephone interview, November 15, 2017.
8Fritsvold.
9Fritsvold.
10Beverly Thomas (dean, School of Public Safety and Legal Studies, Georgia Piedmont Technical College), telephone interview, November 14, 2017.
11Thomas.
12Gennaro Vito (professor and chair, criminal justice department, Southern Police Institute), telephone interview, November 14, 2017.
13Vito.
Please cite as
Scott Harris, “Education and Training Prepares Officers for an Uncertain World,” Product Feature, The Police Chief (January 2018): 52–54.
Product Feature: Education and Training Providers
California University of Pennsylvania
Georgia Piedmont Technical College
Georgia State University – Andrew Young School of Public Studies
Institute of Police Technology & Management
Kaplan Higher and Professional Education
Northwestern University Center for Public Safety
The University of Oklahoma – College of Liberal Studies
