Last week I read an article on the BBC news website that stated;
All new police officers in England and Wales will have to be educated to degree level from 2020, the College of Policing has announced.
You can find the full article HERE.
I disagree with the majority of this article and the majority of comments coming from the College of Policing and the quoted Chief Constable.
I joined the police in 1999 with only 2 O levels. A lot of front-line policing is about common sense, being able to talk to people of any ability and talk your way out of difficult and dangerous situations. As a uniformed officer you deal with thefts from shops, public order offences, drugs offences, assaults, domestic assault and if you’re rural you’ll even deal with bulls in the road, (my first posting was a town with rural outskirts, I was once sent to look for a black bull which was supposedly walking about in the middle of the road in the pitch dark. I’m really not sure what I was supposed to do if faced with him. But luckily, he wasn’t there.) Yes, you may pick up a job that involves cyber crime of some description but you’ll be shown how to submit the relevant forms to make inquiries to the relevant people for the information you need. If it’s any more complex than that, then it’s likely to go to another department as front-line uniform officers don’t deal with difficult and long-running investigations because their job is to keep responding to the needs of the people on the street.
Even investigating a pub fight – which used to mean interviewing the victim, perpetrator and the bar staff – now also extends to researching videos, pictures and comments published online.
If a new probationer really doesn’t know how to use the internet, it’s not that difficult a task to show them how to do it. They are already in the steepest learning curve of their career.
As you progress to a CID department you then study further within the job. You have to pass an exam before commencing your training for CID. This shows you’re serious about it and shows you understand more of the law and policy. Also, once in a department you learn the stuff you need to learn. Before I left the job on medical grounds I was perfectly capable of taking a computer (desktop or laptop) to pieces to remove the hard drive and to examine it forensically with the correct software we used. I was trained in advanced interviewing. It was a part of the job that I loved.
All from a woman with only 2 O levels.
Chief Constable Giles York, the National Police Chiefs Council lead for workforce, said the scheme would “improve our ability to attract and retain really good people”
Does this mean with my lack of qualifications I wasn’t a good cop? I know from my supervisors throughout my career that this wasn’t the case, but it’s not what is being said now.
There is nothing wrong (or nothing they can’t deal with internally) with how officers are trained for their specific roles. The police know what is happening, that’s why they’re wanting to change things. Yes, maybe they could do better, but can’t they always? Can’t we all, in whatever we do? But is giving every officer a degree, the answer to cyber crime? Doubtful.
I see no reason at all to train every single officer to degree level. You’re going to get cops who stay in rural areas, who spend their whole careers without coming within a hairs breath of cyber crime, who don’t want to progress up a career ladder or move from uniform, trained up to degree level with no use for it whatsoever. It’s a waste of money.
It’s also going to take cops away from the street even more than they already are as they spend their time studying. It will pile even more pressure on them. It’s a stressful enough time in that first two years when they’re a probationer and they’re learning just how to be a cop. And it is saying that life experience and common sense isn’t what they want.
I also imagine they will lose a swathe of good cops that they always get from the armed forces. That leave the armed forces and join the police. They come with life experience. They may not want to join if there is a three-year study plan in front of them.
This is also rubbish and misleading reporting from the police or BBC.
There are currently no standard recruitment requirements for officers across the 43 forces in England and Wales.
Some forces accept officers with Level 2 qualifications (A-C grade GCSEs), while others insist on Level 5 (diplomas or foundation degrees).
Because while you may be able to apply with only 2 o levels, there is an across the board entry test. Several tests actually. Written, that includes Maths and English as well as observation skill tests and fitness tests and then another test that is incredibly difficult. You can’t just stroll into the police as the above indicates you might be able to. I might not have studied well at school, but I had what it took to pass all the above tests and I thrived in the police environment.
Soon they will find it more and more difficult to recruit from people who have life experience, who have common sense, because they’ve decimated the pension, it’s not worth what it once was. You may think that’s a good thing, but in my service, in my force alone, one officer was killed on duty, one was shot, one had his car rammed and was seriously injured, and these are the ones I know of. It’s not a job you go into work to do and do it with half a mind. No matter your views on the police, they are good men and women who genuinely put themselves in harms way when people are less and less bothered about hurting them nowadays. And now, now the recruiting process is being changed so radically that recruits are going to be youngsters and academics who have no life experience.
Yes, changes may have been needed to address the way crime is changing, but this is going to tire out those who are joining and it’s going to stop people applying. Good people.
And finally, this is the proposed;
The College of Policing, which is responsible for setting standards of ethics and training for the police service, is in talks with 12 universities about running the degree courses.
The syllabus is likely to cover the law, safeguarding the vulnerable, understanding how an officer behaves on the street and how to build trust by interacting well with communities.
If it wasn’t so ridiculous I would laugh. This is all taught in basic police training. And where is the mention of cyber crime that was the driver to this big change…
Louise Carey says
I couldn’t agree more Rebecca & it seems to the consensus of opinion among my ex-colleagues too! In many forces now probationers have to be referred to as ‘students’.
Rebecca Bradley says
How ridiculous is it that we’re referring to police officers, who have the full powers of officers, as students. It’s ridiculous. What’s also ridiculous is that they closed the training centres down and send them to normal colleges where they have no idea how to deal with the ridicule they are faced with from the everyday students.
Alex J. Cavanaugh says
I don’t know about over there, but here another issue would be pay. Why go to college for a job that pays so little? I don’t blame you and others for balking at that requirement.
Rebecca Bradley says
I’ve also been informed, Alex that the pay has been reduced for new recruits!
Margot Kinberg says
You make really cogent arguments, Rebecca! Your point – that the job skills required aren’t consistent with what one learns at uni – makes sense. And what I like about your approach is that you show how police get all sorts of education and professional development. And there are challenging ‘gatekeeper’ exams and so on; so, as you say, it’s not a case of anyone who feels like it being to walk in, don a uniform, and start issuing traffic citations and cautions. As much as I love the higher education environment (and I do!), that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone, or is necessary for every occupation.
Rebecca Bradley says
Much as I miss the job, it’s changing beyond all recognition and it’s not all change that needs to happen, things like this just don’t seem well thought through. It’s following on from high ranking officers being able to join straight at a higher rank with certain qualifications without having had to police the streets. This came in in 2015 I think (or it may have just been last year.) I have a feeling that they think that was successful and are now thinking it follows that all cops, including those on the street must need those high level qualifications to do the job – but it’s a different beast altogether.
Dawn Nelson says
I agree this is all kinds of wrong. I saw this happen in the ambulance service. All paramedics have to have a degree now. The turnover is higher than ever, so I’m told. Having a degree doesn’t mean you do a job that requires practical skills, any better than soeone who doesn’t. It’s entireyl irrelevant. What is relevent is in house training, good staff and management relayions, good pay, good working conditions and support. These are all things that mean people will stay, not a degree! I have a degree, I stayed in the Ambulance service for 3 years. I then moved around the NHS for another five years, gained another diploma and yes I left. Why? It was ultimately a personal decision but support, pay and low staffing levels all played a part not wether or not I had a degree.
Dawn Nelson says
Look at the typos in that! And I have a degree ?
Rebecca Bradley says
Exactly! When you work inside that system you see it for what it is and how it does and doesn’t work. This is so frustrating. I miss the job, but I think now I miss what it used to be. Now it’s changed beyond all recognition.
Jacqui Murray says
I’ve often thought that over here in America, our Congressional representatives should have college degrees because of the level of material they must review. Police–I’m with you on this.
Rebecca Bradley says
Yes, they’re two different things. I even had this discussion with my sister at the weekend. She has a Masters in business but she admitted she doesn’t have common sense, whereas I have the common sense but not the qualifications. Which would you rather your cops have?
Laura says
I wholeheartedly agree Rebecca and also think that some people without a degree but who would make excellent police officers are going to be discriminated against. The same thing is happening within the NHS. I work with people with degrees who have no communication skills whatsoever and no common sense and make mistakes and leave a trail of destruction behind them!
Rebecca Bradley says
Yes to this. I did work with cops who had stayed on in the education system and had degrees behind them but then chose to join the police and they were great officers. But they made life choices to join the job. They were suited to it. I’m not saying everyone with a degree isn’t. But saying you have to have a degree and that’s the only way you’re capable of doing it is just blind to how policing works on the ground.
Bernadette says
I agree with you but it’s a common trend…across the world and across many industries. I don’t have any knowledge of the law enforcement industry but I work in the health sector and the move towards “everyone having a degree’ has had really serious consequences that are only just coming to light. I don’t mean that doctors shouldn’t be qualified but where I live all nurses have to have a minimum of a three year degree and they don’t see the inside of a hospital until they are well into their studies…whereas they used to learn just about everything on-the job – progressing up through a series of steps after demonstrating relevant skills and knowledge at key milestones. The impacts of this have included exponential increases in the cost of nurses as staff (we can afford less of them) and less diversity in the types of people attracted to the profession and less nurses being trained overall (many people are put off by the thought of ‘going to university’ or cannot afford to). Sounds like your police force will go through similar issues.
Rebecca Bradley says
Yes, I really do think it’s going to put a lot of people off Bernadette. A lot of good people who would have made good officers. I know they’re not saying you have to go to uni before you can start policing, but it’s still a whole lot of work to be doing while you’re already trying to learn a very demanding and oftentimes stressful job. Your two year probationary period is not a time when you want to be having to be doing a degree as well.
Glynis Smy says
I felt the same when it happened to nurses. When I returned to practice I had all the skills but had to sit at a desk twiddling my thumbs. The wards were manned by trainee’s in the ’70’s and there were no shortage of willing hands. I sat in a classroom years later while nurses struggled on the wards. Crazy thinking that a degree will make the difference. I was accepted without my school results, qualified four months earlier ‘cos of age and exam dates, then worked my way to the top of where I wanted to be. A few years later I sat at a desk for a year! I do not believe it is the way forward for any job. A degree is a good thing for some posts, but not for others.
Rebecca Bradley says
I fear it is going to lose the job many applicants that would otherwise have been brilliant cops and that would have excelled in their roles.
Graeme Cumming says
As Glynis has just commented, I have the same feeling about nursing. Not a profession I have any direct experience of, but I have relations involved and my daughter has just started her degree course. The timing for her has been crucial because if she waited till next year she’d have to pay for her course. Bearing in mind that a degree wasn’t required until relatively recently, asking the students to pay for the course seems ridiculous, particularly at a time when we have a shortage of recruits and need to bring in nurses from overseas when we are struggling to reduce immigration. Life experience and the right mindset are more important than academic achievements. That applies to nursing, policing and so many other professions. High standards is one thing, but basing them purely on a degree is an unnecessary hurdle. And the only law that’ll matter then will be the law of unintended consequences.
Rebecca Bradley says
It’s a sad turn of events and the police service will suffer for it, I’m sure. It will lose some good people who will now decide it’s not something that are willing to do but who otherwise would have gone on to do great things within the job.
Katy Johnson says
I agree it would be a great shame to turn people away on the basis they don’t have a degree. Courage, commitment and common sense must be just as, if not more, important.
Rebecca Bradley says
Exactly this, Katy.