Introduction to law enforcement

¶ … President's Crime Commission made the universal recommendation that every officer hold at least a baccalaureate degree, the amount of valuable research on policing has increased exponentially. This body of research demonstrates a substantial mostly positive fall out from the recommendation and the subsequent adoption of rules by many local and regional police forces regarding the holding of such degrees as mandate to either entering the police force or achieving growth in professional level of service. The foundation of such research is in itself proof of the success of such a recommendation as the development of a body of policing academics naturally results in the expansion of knowledge with regard to policing and professionalism. Individual officers and support staff therefore are in a position to receive such an education to a degree not previously possible as new research and information enriches the process and the amount of potential knowledge that can be assimilated into later professional action. The improvements of policing and policing policy, have thus greatly improved as has the caliber of officer, at every level, and particularly at the level of supervisory positions and intensive investigation positions. It is therefore clear that the policy of police education has created an effective strategy for the improvement of policing in general.

The assumptions of such an approach would be associated mainly with the individuals' reception to policing as a professional position that requires effort and education on the part of the potential individual officer. The growth of research on policing is a met assumption of the strategy of recommending and/or requiring higher education for individual officers. The research has created a body of knowledge with regard to policing that is indispensable and will likely continue to do so. Developing a specialized education system for police officers and later commissioners and supervisory staff demonstrates the assumption that through such an education and a system the individual officer will be better prepared for the task and current on technology they may be utilizing to perform their jobs as officers and/or detectives. As early as 1919 the development of creating a specialized sense of professionalism through education and on-the-job training is present and to a large degree the thoughts on the subject are that it has met its early assumptions and goals.

It seems to us that the only way to manage these two sets of tensions -one between individual rights and social order, the other between local responsiveness and administrative efficiency -- is through real professionalism. The challenges of community policing require high integrity, a mature sense of ethics, thoughtful problem-solving, people-dealing skills, and bureaucratic savvy in addition to the courage, determination, compassion, command presence, action orientation, and common sense that are needed for tactical police work. A great deal of progress has been made toward professionalizing the police since the last millennium. It will be exciting to see whether truly professional police officers emerge during the twenty-first century, the kinds of highly educated and skilled men and women August Vollmer argued for in 1919 (Document 33).

Vila & Morris, 1999, p. xxx)

Improving policing being the greatest goal, has clearly occurred, and the continuous development of better systems and knowledge on the subjects of policing as well as on the dissemination of such knowledge to current and future officers has clearly proven the success of the ideas of such early reformers as Vollmer. As most would contend this is especially true of the body of knowledge that revolves around community and social aspects of policing, as officers are in a constant struggle to balance the community interaction that is necessary to conduct so many aspects of their jobs and the very human desire to alienate community based on a narrow negative view of social and community conscience, as a result of exposure to a relatively small percentage of individuals, most of whom are criminal or have criminal desires. Police officers have increasingly been made aware, through education and real life experience of the importance of professionalism as representatives of authority in their community and this has greatly improved policing. (Glenn et al., 2003, pp. 2, 31, 33, 64, 148) Having a commitment to improve policing is in and of itself and improvement over past policing as it signifies an important step in the development of professionalism in the police force and accountability for actions.