Education Requirement - new police officers

Recently a proposal was made to the Woodstock Board of Fire and Police Commissioners (BOFPC) for a change in the educational requirement for new police officers of the Woodstock Police Department. At the meeting where this was discussed, no explanation was made of the proposal, which had been distributed before the meeting to the three Commissioners.

The City proposed "a minimum educational standard of an associate's degree, and/or 2 years of military service, as part of our next planned recruitment."

This is a reasonable minimum standard. In fact, it may be too low. I had left that meeting, wondering whether the City had been proposing a minimum of a four-year degree. Even that requirement might not be unreasonable.

Today's serious applicants for law enforcement study Criminal Justice, Police Science, Criminology or a whole slew of other names for this course of study.

In today's hiring climate, and understanding how long a newly-hired officer might actually remain with a department, a minimum standard of an associate's degree, with no minimum law-enforcement program credits, might be too low. And two years' military service, alone, is, in my opinion, a completely inadequate minimum requirement, unless the applicant for a cop's position had been in a military police MOS. And that, if it were the case, should bear close, careful examination. Duties of a military police officer are not the same as a civilian police officer.

A high school education today is insufficient preparation for employment. The grammar, spelling, writing and math skills of too many high school graduates leave them unprepared for full-time employment. In fact, they leave them unprepared even to enter many colleges, which then have to offer remedial classes before the students can be expected to succeed in college-level classes.

Perhaps I place undue importance on writing, spelling and speaking skills. But, when someone answers the phone and responds "This is him", when I ask to speak with a certain person, I immediately lower my estimation of the person's educational level and ability to resolve any problem about which I might be calling. And when I hear "Him and I did such-and-such", I'm ready to throw up.

I urge the BOFPC to re-examine the proposal of the City's Human Resource Director and to adopt a higher minimum educational standard than currently exists in Woodstock.

After that, the BOFPC should consider college-level educational studies for existing members of our police department, encouraging each officer to earn his or her B.A., if not already awarded.