With staffing and resources at a minimum, training and education can sometimes be nudged to the margins of the law enforcement agenda. However, in an increasingly complex world, agencies can ill afford for this to be the case.

A silver bullet solution may be online education. As are many industries in the Internet-connected world, online education is evolving and may work especially well for the law enforcement and public safety communities, thanks in large part to the greater flexibility it offers. Online education programs are springing up everywhere, both from for-profit companies and from traditional colleges that are expanding their campuses into the digital world.

“A lot of people have a misconception of online learning,” said Tim Hardiman, a retired New York Police Department officer and now a professor with American Military University, a branch of the Manassas, Virginia-based American Public University System, a company delivering online learning on a range of public safety topics from criminal justice to forensics to fire science. “They think you slide a CD into a computer and take a multiple choice exam. But it’s not like that anymore. It’s a different experience now. There have always been a wide range of experiences that are available in education… This is just one of them, and it can be enormous for criminal justice professionals.”¹

The world of connected education is certainly expanding. According to figures released in early 2014 by the Babson Survey Research Group, affiliated with Babson College in Massachusetts, about 6.1 million U.S. students took an online course in fall 2010, which is an increase of 560,000 from the previous year. The same study reported that 65 percent of institutions surveyed said online education was in their long-term plans.²

The cost of an online education also tends to be lower, especially when accounting for travel, room and board, and other expenses that frequently do not apply to the online experience.

How does online education actually work? The answer can vary as widely as the students and educational institutions involved. Courses can be taken entirely online or can employ a “blended” approach between digital learning and classroom experiences. Lectures are captured electronically and then posted online. Students can view these lectures and complete course requirements at a more flexible pace. Instructors communicate one-on-one with students by email or other methods, while discussion boards facilitate group discourse between students and faculty and among students themselves.

The discussion features that are a trademark of many online courses actually can improve the learning experience compared with the traditional classroom, said David Bradford, executive director of Northwestern University Center for Public Safety—which is based in Evanston, Illinois, but is expanding into the online space, including recently making its entire School of Police Staff and Command certificate program available through the web.³

Bradford estimated that as many as 98 percent of the center’s online staff and command students exceeded minimum course requirements for class participation. Bradford also said that the quality of online education today is a far cry from the formality that many considered it to be just a few short years ago. Though times can vary based on different circumstances, Bradford said an online course offered through the center typically takes about 12 weeks to complete, compared with 10 weeks for the brick-and-mortar version.

“Instructors who teach the online versions of a course and the version on the ground said they were spending more time with students online than the ones in the classroom,” Bradford said. “They’re more restrained by time in the classroom, and students lose a lot of their inhibitions they have in the physical classroom and are more open to asking questions.”

The primary way that online education can help law enforcement do its job better is through not only the actual professional advancement it provides, faculty members said, but also the ease with which it provides it.

“The convenience of online education is especially apparent if you work the third shift and get off at eight in the morning, but you want to take classes,” said David White, a retired police officer and now a professor in the Master of Science in Criminal Justice program at Kaplan University, a company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that offers traditional and online education around the United States. “I did that third shift, so I would get off and then go take a class at 9:00 a.m. But now, you can go to class and do your coursework any time during the day. Students have access to the classroom 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”⁴

This convenience can be particularly beneficial for working law enforcement and public safety professionals, who, like many other professionals, are strapped for time or can’t easily absent themselves from day-to-day workplace activities.

“There are a large number of people who would like to participate in some new training and education,” Bradford said. “But the agency was small enough that it can’t afford the cost or can’t afford to send the person away for 10 weeks to a remote location because the backfill involved would be too great.”

This makes online education a perfect option for professionals who are looking to take the next step up the proverbial ladder or simply add a new skill set to their repertoire.

“A lot of what gets offered in online education is for professional people who are interested in advancing their careers,” said Jeffrey Magers, a retired police captain and associate professor in the professional studies department of California University of Pennsylvania, based in California, Pennsylvania. “These learners are from all over the country. They take courses in the law and how the law interacts with public policy. These and other courses are for becoming an executive-level leader.”⁵

Learners can take a deep dive into various public safety and service topics through California University’s professional studies department. Its Master of Science in Legal Studies program offers three concentrations: law and public policy, homeland security, and criminal justice.

Magers said the program focuses on existing professionals, not only because it is online, but also because it offers new techniques in problem-solving and other practical competencies. “Instead of term papers, where you discuss a problem, I assign white papers, where you’re asking them to come up with alternatives and options for a solution or a change in policy,” Magers said. “Things in law enforcement will keep changing, but you will always have that skill of critical analysis because of these exercises.”

Other universities offering online education in law enforcement and public safety include the University of Massachusetts, the University of North Carolina, and Brandman University, based in Irvine, California.

Another example can be found in Northwestern’s Staff and Command program. After two years of preparatory work, school leaders recently made the program available entirely online (though it is still offered in a traditional physical format, as well). Part of the university’s School of Continuing Studies, the online program’s goal is to equip future chiefs and captains with the competencies they will need to succeed.

“This is for people who have been identified by their agency as having leadership potential,” Bradford said. “Distance learning and education are important elements of this kind of educational process.”

The spectrum of online education is far broader than it once was. Associate, bachelor’s, and even master’s degrees, along with various certificates, are available online at some institutions. Kaplan, for instance, offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in various law enforcement areas.

“Our full-degree programs online are very comparable with brick-and-mortar standards,” said Chris Findley, a Kaplan professor who teaches forensic psychology courses. “We can actually offer a master’s degree online and be confident about that. People are stuck in a brick-and-mortar mind-set…but we have full degrees and specialization areas that can really help you get where you want to go.”⁶ ♦

Notes:
¹Tim Hardiman (professor, American Military University), phone interview, June 9, 2014.
²Babson Survey Research Group, Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011, 4, http://www.babson.edu/Academics/centers/blank-center/global-research/Documents/going-the-distance.pdf (accessed July 31, 2014).
³David Bradford (executive director of Northwestern University Center for Public Safety), phone interview, June 10, 2014.
⁴David White (professor, Kaplan University), phone interview, June 11, 2014.
⁵Jeffrey Magers (associate professor, California University of Pennsylvania), phone interview, June 10, 2014.
⁶Chris Findley (professor, Kaplan University), phone interview, June 11, 2014.

Please cite as:

Scott Harris, “Online Education Fits Neatly with the Law Enforcement Lifestyle,” Product Feature:, The Police Chief 81 (September 2014): 56–57.

Top