THE RELEVANCE OF ACADEMIC DEGREES FOR POLICE OFFICIALS IN THEIR INTERNAL

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CHAPTER 2 AN OVERVIEW OF TERTIARY EDUCATION RECOGNITION IN POLICE ORGANISATIONS

 INTRODUCTION

Police organisations around the world approach the significance of tertiary education differently within their ranks. Various police organisations seem to hold the view that tertiary education is not relevant to the police. Therefore, this chapter examines the recognition of tertiary education in police organisations. This chapter also provides an overview of the relevance that a tertiary qualification holds for serving members of police organisations in their internal and external occupational environments. Furthermore, this chapter explores the support structures, if any, that are in place to enable serving police members to improve their academic qualifications.

 AN OVERVIEW OF TERTIARY EDUCATION IN INTERNATIONAL POLICE ORGANISATIONS

International police organisations have different policies which regulate their recruitment and promotion strategies. According to Punch (in Chen, 2015: 6), some police agencies regard academic qualifications as “irrelevant and dysfunctional”, and are of the view that policing requires knowledge that is based on practice and common sense. On the other hand, other police agencies have entered into partnerships with tertiary institutions with the aim of offering higher education degrees to police officials (Cordner & Shain, 2011: 281; Macvean & Cox, 2012: 19; Prenzler, Martin & Sarre, 1990: 3; Terra, 2009: 13). In Australia, for example, the Western Australia Police and the NSW Police Service formed partnerships with universities to offer associate degrees to prospective recruits (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 117-119). Furthermore, a number of police organisations require their police officials to have higher academic degrees in order for them to be considered for promotion to higher ranks (Buker, 2010: 63; Cao, Huang & Sun, 2015: 7). Several police organisations even provide funding to employees who wish to improve their educational qualifications (Carter & Sapp, 1990: 59; Sandor, 2014: 184; Terra, 2009: 13).

The role of tertiary education in the recruitment of police officials

In this section, the role of tertiary education in the recruitment of police officials in various countries is discussed.
The Australian perspective
Tertiary education is regarded as a condition without which quality police work cannot be achieved (Dennis, in Feltes, 2002: 55; Prenzler et al., 2010: 3). Australia had several commissions of inquiry over the period 1987 to 2004 in response to concerns relating to police corruption and police inefficiency, and to restore police legitimacy (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 119). For example, the Fitzgerald Inquiry, which was established in the period 1987 to 1992 to investigate corrupt practices within the Queensland Police Department, recommended, in relation to the education of police officials, that the police department recruit more graduates (Fitzgerald, in Prenzler et al., 2009: 3). According to Prenzler et al. (2009: 3), Commissioner Fitzgerald found a correlation between police maladministration and corruption, and a lack of tertiary education.
Almost a decade later, another commission of inquiry into the NSW Police Service, the Royal Commission, was established in the period 1994 to 1997 to probe corruption and other criminal activities within the police service (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 118). The Royal Commission (in Longbottom & Van Kernbeek, 1999: 278), like the Fitzgerald Inquiry, also recommended that a full university degree or diploma be the minimum educational requirement for recruitment into the police service as a proactive measure in dealing with the challenges faced by the police service. This commission specifically recommended that recruits with qualifications higher than a high school diploma be given preference during the recruitment process (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 118). However, Kennedy (in Green & Gates, 2014: 80) is of the view that the recruitment policy of the Western Australian police would, for example, favour an 18-year-old good swimmer with good eyesight over a university graduate who has excellent life experience. According to Kennedy (in Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 118), the Royal Commission maintains that tertiary education has the long-term benefit of improving the quality of services that are delivered by the police, and that it has the potential to confront corruption and criminality within the service.
Following the recommendations of the various commissions of inquiry in Australia, police departments began to find ways of implementing the said recommendations. The NSW Police Service and the Western Australia Police formed partnerships with local universities to offer a two-year Associate Degree in Policing Practice and an Associate Degree in Social Science (Political Studies) to students respectively (Green & Woolston, 2014: 44; Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 117, 118-119). The Associate Degree in Policing Practice is provided through a joint partnership entered into around 1998 between the NSW Police Service and Charles Stuart University, whereby the institutional phase of the programme is presented at the academy of the NSW Police Service (Green & Woolston, 2014: 44). Currently, the joint partnership between the two institutions has been extended to offer a Diploma in Policing Practice (Green & Woolston, 2014: 43).
The specific focus of the associate degrees is on the needs of the police (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 119). The implementation of an associate degree constitutes a shift from the accredited four-year degree recommended by the commissions of inquiry (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 117). The focal point of an associate degree thus offered is in line with the “professional policing model of education” as opposed to the “liberal educational model” that was recommended by the Fitzgerald Commission of Inquiry (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 117). The professional policing model is opposed to the recruitment of “generalist graduates” who are regarded as not being suited to bring about desired reform in police organisations (Bradley in Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 117). The proponents of the liberal model of education are in favour of the adoption of a full graduate entry into the police with a generalist curriculum which comprises courses relevant to police studies (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 117).
The discrepancy in the implementation of the recommendations of the commissions of inquiry is attributed to the fact that the commissions were less specific on how the educational reforms were to be achieved (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 119). Tertiary education is also met with a strong conviction that it will phase out common sense while bringing in impracticalities (Longbottom & Van Kernbeek, 1999: 280). According to Pater (in Longbottom & Van Kernbeek, 1999: 280), operational police officials are critical and contemptuous of “university officers with shallow policing experience”. This attitude towards tertiary education is also found in police journals that advocate the argument that the best place to learn policing is on the job (Bult, Ireland, Jacobson, Madden & West, in Longbottom & Van Kernbeek, 1999: 280).
In the NSW Police Service, students who are registered for the associate degree and who do not get recruited into the police service at the end of the first year are obliged to switch to a justice studies degree, which is a broader qualification (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 119). This means that the students are appointed as probationary constables at the end of their first year of study (Green & Woolston, 2014: 44).
In Queensland, the Criminal Justice Commission, which was established in response to the Fitzgerald Commission of Inquiry to oversee reform in the Queensland Police Service, moved the training of recruits from the police academy to a university (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 112). This move resulted in Griffith University offering a “baccalaureate degree in criminology and criminal justice” (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 112). The first year of the degree was dedicated to police recruits and culminated in the issuing of an “Advanced Certificate in Policing” (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 112). According to Wimhurst and Ransley (2007: 112), the “Advance Certificate in Policing” was to become the entry-level qualification for Australian police. However, this qualification was discontinued after a short period of three years, by which time 1 040 recruits had already graduated from the programme (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 112).
During the period 1988 to 1989, 11 percent of applicants who were interested in joining the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had tertiary qualifications (Berzins, 2005: 200). During this period, the AFP had the express intention of encouraging undergraduates and graduates to apply for enlistment in the police (Berzins, 2005: 200). In the period 1991 to 1992, the AFP outsourced a significant amount of education of its members to tertiary institutions (Berzins, 2005: 198). According to Berzins (2005: 198), the AFP offered an Associate Diploma in Applied Science (Fingerprint Investigation) in partnership with the Canberra Institute of Technology.
Berzins (2005: 201) maintains that the AFP had a policy of recruiting 70 percent graduates and 30 percent of recruits with life and workplace experience by 2010. The 70 percent minimum graduate policy suddenly almost became 100 percent in the late 1980 and mid-1990s, making it almost impossible for recruits without a tertiary education to become police officials (Berzins, 2005: 201). This was contrary to the express intention that 30 percent of applicants be drawn from a pool of those who had life experience which would be regarded as equivalent to tertiary education (Berzins, 2005: 201). Over 75 percent of police recruits within the AFP have tertiary qualifications, with some 30 percent of the 75 percent being post-graduates (Berzins, 2005: 202). However, not everyone supports the introduction of tertiary education as a prerequisite for enlistment in the Australian police. According to Wimhurst and Ransley (2007: 114), police supervisors are opposed to the academic arrangement as they regard the recruits as not being “street wise” and also perceive the qualification as being “bookish and theoretical”.
Police practitioners are also suspicious of the involvement of universities in the education of the police (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 114). They claim that the sole intention of the universities is to take control of police education (Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 114). According to the Public Sector Management Commission (in Wimhurst & Ransley, 2007: 115), higher education is perceived as being biased against the serving experienced members, as it is regarded as being too focused on the education of recruits.

The United States of America perspective

In the USA, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice was established in 1967 and subsequently recommended that the educational requirements for police recruits be raised (Carter & Sapp, 1990: 60; Michelson, 2002: 10). According to Michelson (2002: 10) and Carter and Sapp (1990: 60), the ultimate aim of the recommendation was to implement the requirement that a baccalaureate degree become a minimum educational standard for enlistment. Carter, Sapp and Stephens (in Michelson, 2002: 9) argue that a former Commissioner of the New York City Police Department summed up the work of the President’s Commission when he said that police officers have far-reaching authority and discretionary powers vested upon them, and that they execute duties that are otherwise the domain of different professions, which collectively necessitates better education among them. The ABA also stressed the need for police organisations to recruit police officers with improved educational qualifications (Palombo, in Michelson, 2002: 10). The main rational behind the call to increase the educational qualifications of the police was to rid it of the “stupid cop” image and of the perception that becoming a cop is an option taken by those who cannot take an effort of “becoming something worthwhile” (Bittner, in Shernock, 1992: 72).
In 1993, the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals set 1982 as the due date for the implementation of a higher educational prerequisite (Carter & Sapp, 1990: 60; Michelson, 2002: 10). The commission also commented that obtaining a high school diploma was no longer “a significant educational achievement” and further cautioned that to continue to recruit at the level of high school is to invite mediocrity (Telep, 2011: 394). In 2000, the United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) observed that the endorsement of a college degree prerequisite would help in restoring the public’s confidence in the police (Chapman, 2012: 423).
However, in 1978, the National Advisory Commission on Higher Education of Police Officers found serious shortcomings relating to education in law enforcement environment (Carter & Sapp, 1990: 61). The National Advisory Commission thus recommended a shift from “educating the recruited to recruiting the educated”, hence the call to endorse a bachelor’s degree as a minimum prerequisite for joining the police (Telep, 2011: 394). Furthermore, another commission, the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies, notes that the recruitment process is a proactive activity which is aimed at the identification of the “best possible candidate”, and not a mere process of eliminating the candidates with the least qualifications (Michelson, 2002: 26). According to Mayo and Murphy (in Michelson, 2002: 12), the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training supported the call for police officers with college education, with PERF further calling for the implementation of a four-year degree requirement by the year 2003. The reasoning behind recommending the bachelor’s degree requirement for the police is based on the perceived skills and attitudes associated with the attainment of such degrees (Carter & Sapp, in Paoline, Terrill & Rossler, 2015: 52).
The implementation of the higher degree education requirement is fulfilled by few police departments in the USA, despite the recommendations of the commissions of inquiry and other authorities. Gardiner (2015: 654) found that 82 percent of police departments in California still required a high school diploma as a minimum educational prerequisite for enlistment, while 14,6 percent and 2,5 percent required some college and an associate degree respectively. According to Hickman Reeves (in Telep, 2011: 394) and Bruns (2010: 88), a high school diploma is still the minimum pre-requisite for employment in most police departments in the USA.
The reluctance of the police administrators to implement the higher education requirement is evident in that only one percent of police departments require a four-year degree as a prerequisite for enlisting in the police (Bureau of Justice Statistics, in Baro & Burlingame, 1999: 57, 59; Hickman & Reeves in Bruns, 2010: 88). PERF (in Bruns, 2010: 90) found that only four police departments out of 100 serving the largest cities in the USA required a four-year degree. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (in Shjarback & White, 2015: 8), 16 percent of police departments stipulated “some college credit” as a pre-employment requirement. Terra (2009: 12) maintains that large departments requiring “some type of college” and those requiring a two-year degree increased from 19 percent to 37 percent and from six percent to 14 percent respectively around the year 2000.
Several reasons are advanced for the inconsistent implementation of the recommendations of the commissions that a four-year degree be the minimum requirement for employment in the police organisations in the USA. The reasons are many and varied, but the main reason offered is that the implementation of such a requirement would discriminate against minorities and result in lawsuits (Carter & Sapp, 1990: 67; Michelson, 2002: 19). Carter et al. (in Michelson, 2002: 23) found that police salaries and benefits were not attractive enough in comparison to other occupations, and that few graduates were willing to enlist in a law enforcement environment. Those critical of college-educated police officers argue that such officers are prone to frustration with their work given the rigid rules and limited opportunities for growth (Worden, in Bruns, 2010: 93; Terra, 2009: 13). Many police administrators are concerned that educational opportunities increase the likelihood of officer turnover due to increased job mobility associated with education (Terra, 2009: 13). The respondents in a study by Bruns and Magnan (2014: 37) opined that mandating tertiary education had the potential to shrink the pool of applicants.

CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
1.3 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
1.4 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTION
1.6 THE VALUE OF THE STUDY
1.7 KEY CONCEPTS
1.8 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST PHILOSOPHICAL WORLDVIEW
1.9 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1.10 DATA COLLECTION
1.11 POPULATION AND SAMPLING STRATEGY
1.12 DATA ANALYSIS
1.13 STRATEGIES TO ENSURE TRUSTWORTINESS OF THE STUDY
1.14 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF THE STUDY
1.15 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 2 AN OVERVIEW OF TERTIARY EDUCATION RECOGNITION IN POLICE ORGANISATIONS 
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 AN OVERVIEW OF TERTIARY EDUCATION IN INTERNATIONAL POLICE ORGANISATIONS
2.3 THE RELEVANCE OF ACADEMIC DEGREES FOR POLICE OFFICIALS IN THEIR INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL OCCUPATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
2.4 ALIGNMENT OF SOUTH AFRICAN PRACTICE WITH INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE
2.5 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 3 CONTEXTUALISING PROFESSIONALISM IN POLICE ORGANISATIONS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 AN OVERVIEW OF PROFESSIONALISM IN POLICE ORGANISATIONS
3.3 DETERMINATION OF POLICING AS A PROFESSIONAL PROFESSION
3.4 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 4 PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 THE OUTCOME OF THE INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS
4.3 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 5 INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 OVERVIEW OF EMERGENT THEMES AND SUBCATEGORIES
5.3 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
6.1 INTRODUCTION
6.2 SUMMARY
6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
6.4 PROCEDURAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE APPROPRIATE PLACEMENT OF DOCTORATE GRADUATES IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE
6.5 CONCLUSION
LIST OF REFERENCES
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