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Original Articles

Making good cops in the twenty-first century: Emerging issues for the effective recruitment, selection and training of police in the United States and abroadFootnote1

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Pages 119-134 | Published online: 23 Apr 2008
 

Abstract

Recruitment, selection and training have become critically important issues for police departments around the world in large part because of significant changes in the philosophy and nature of policing, higher expectations by their constituencies, and because of continuing efforts at professionalization. This paper highlights seven pressing issues, as at 2008, that will likely define recruitment, selection and training of police over the next several years. Two areas in recruitment and selection are discussed: proactive recruitment to promote diversity and college-education requirements. The paper then turns to five critical issues in police training: changing the pedagogy (andragogy is described), community and problem-oriented policing philosophies, multicultural/diversity training, technology, and counter-terrorism. The paper first examines the issues from an American perspective, but then each issue is considered through an international lens. This international focus offers a broader perspective that both highlights important differences between the USA and other countries and provides critical insights about lessons learned elsewhere.

Notes

1. Portions of this paper are drawn from M.D. White, Current Issues and Controversies in Policing (Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2007).

2. C. Reith, The Blind Eye of History: A Study of the Origins of the Present Police Era (Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith, 1975).

3. August Vollmer, cited in R. Bain, ‘The Policeman on the Beat’, Science Monthly 48, no. 5. (1939): 5.

4. Reith, The Blind Eye of History.

5. R. Reiner, The Politics of the Police, 3rd ed. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000).

6. V.B. Ermer, ‘Recruitment of Female Police Officers in New York City’, Journal of Criminal Justice 6 (1978): 233–46; D. Lester, ‘Why do People Become Police Officers: A Study of Reasons and Their Predictions of Success’, Journal of Police Science and Administration 11, no. 2 (1983): 170–4; A.J. Raganella and M.D. White, ‘Race, Gender and Motivation for Becoming a Police Officer: Implications for Building a Representative Police Department’, Journal of Criminal Justice 32 (2004): 501–13.

7. J.H. Skolnick and J.J. Fyfe, Above the Law: Police and the Excessive Use of Force (New York: Free Press, 1993); J.J. Fyfe and R. Kane, Bad Cops: A Study of Career-Ending Misconduct among New York City Police Officers (Final Report. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, 2006).

8. See p. 117 of O. Marenin, ‘Police Training for Democracy’, Police Practice and Research 5, no. 2 (2004): 107–23.

9. Metropolitan Police Service, MPS Race Equality Scheme 2005–2008 (London: MPS, 2005).

10. See p. 163 of J. Fleming and G. Lafferty, ‘New Management Techniques and Restructuring for Accountability in Australian Police Organizations’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 23, no. 2 (2000): 154–68.

11. J. Brown, A. Hazengard and C. Ormiston, ‘Policewomen: An International Comparison’, in Policing Across the World: Issues for the Twenty-first Century, ed. R.I. Mawby (London: UCL Press, 1999).

12. Council of Europe, The European Code of Police Ethics (Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, 2002).

13. L.W. Sherman, The Quality of Police Education (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1978); S. Walker and C.M. Katz, The Police in America: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002); X. Cao and X. Huang, ‘Determinants of Citizen Complaints Against Police Abuse of Power’, Journal of Criminal Justice 28, no. 2 (2000): 203–13.

14. See p. 27 of D.L. Carter and A.D. Sapp, ‘Police Education and Minority Recruitment: The Impact of a College Requirement’, Police Executive Research Forum, Washington, DC, 1991.

15. D.L. Carter, A.D. Sapp and D.W. Stephens, ‘The State of Police Education’, Police Executive Research Forum, Washington, DC, 1989.

16. Reiner, The Politics of the Police.

17. A. Camacho, ‘La Policia Colombiana, Recorrido de una Reforma’, Análisis Politico 41 (2000): 104–24.

18. P.E. Igbinovia, ‘The Future of the Nigeria Police’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 23, no. 4 (2000): 538–54.

19. P. Veic and I. Cajner-Mraovic, ‘Police Training and Education: The Croatian Perspective’, Police Practice and Research 5, no. 2 (2004): 137–47.

20. S.K. Ivkovic and M.R. Haberfeld, ‘Transformation from Militia to Police in Croatia and Poland: A Comparative Perspective’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management 23, no. 2: 194–217.

21. See p. 284 of V.B. Lord, ‘Swedish Police Selection and Training: Issues from a Comparative Perspective’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 21, no. 2 (1998): 280–92.

22. Ibid.

23. See p. 129 of P.R. Lino, ‘Police Education and Training in a Global Society: A Brazilian Overview’, Police Practice and Research 5, no. 2 (2004): 125–36.

24. S.T. Engel and G.W. Burruss, ‘Human Rights in the New Training Curriculum of the Police Service of Northern Ireland’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 27, no. 4 (2004): 498–511.

25. See p. 35 of D.H. Bayley and E. Bittner, ‘Learning the Skills of Policing’, Law and Contemporary Problems 47 (1984): 35–59.

26. P.J. Ortmeier, ‘Leadership for Community-Policing: A Study to Identify Essential Officer Competencies’, The Police Chief 64, no. 10 (1997): 88–96.

27. See p. 32 of M.L. Birzer, ‘The Theory of Andragogy Applied to Police Training’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management 26, no. 1 (2003): 29–42.

28. Bayley and Bittner, ‘Learning the Skills of policing’, 55.

29. S. Brookfield, Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1986); R.S. Caffarella, ‘Self-Directed Learning’, in S. Merriam (ed.) An Update on Adult Learning Theory, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993); S.B. Merriam and R.S. Caffarella, Learning in Adulthood, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999).

30. Birzer, ‘The Theory of Andragogy’.

31. Ibid., (34–35).

32. M.L. Birzer and R. Tannehill, ‘A More Effective Training Approach for Contemporary Policing’, Police Quarterly 4, no. 2 (2001): 233–52.

33. Skolnick and Fyfe, Above the Law.

34. Lord, ‘Swedish Police Selection’, 286.

35. D.K. Das and A. L. Robinson, ‘The Police in Norway: A Profile’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 24, no. 3 (2001): 330–46.

36. See p. 162 of M.B. Lussier, ‘Training at the Sûreté du Québec’, Police Practice and Research 5, no. 2 (2004): 149–63.

37. Marenin, ‘Police Training for Democracy’, 116.

38. Ibid.

39. R. Heslop, ‘“Doing a Maslow”: Humanistic Education and Diversity in Police Training’, The Police Journal 79 (2006): 331–41.

40. Walker and Katz, The Police in America.

41. M.R. Haberfeld, Critical Issues in Training (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002).

42. Ibid.

43. A.P. LaRose, M.A. Caldero and I. Gonzalez-Gutierrez, ‘Individual Values of Mexico's New Centurions: Will Police Recruits Implement Community-Based Changes?’, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 22 (2006): 286–302.

44. Engel and Burruss, ‘Human Rights in the New Training Curriculum’.

45. Haberfeld, Critical Issues in Training.

46. R.C. Davis, N.J. Henderson and C. Merrick, ‘Community Policing: Variations on the Western Model in the Developing World’, Police Practice and Research 4, no. 3 (2003): 285–300.

47. The Kerner Commission [National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders], Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (New York: Bantam Books, 1967).

48. H.B. Grant and K.J. Terry, Law Enforcement in the 21st Century (Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2005).

49. Haberfeld, Critical Issues in Training; R.M. Shusta, D.R. Levine, P.R. Harris and H.Z. Wang, Multicultural Law Enforcement: Strategies for Peacekeeping in a Diverse Society (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995).

50. D.H. Champion and M.K. Hooper, Introduction to American Policing (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003).

51. Haberfeld, Critical Issues in Training.

52. Ibid., 195.

53. Das and Robinson, ‘The Police in Norway’.

54. Engel and Burruss, ‘Human Rights in the New Training Curriculum’, 501.

55. Ibid., 502.

56. Lord, ‘Swedish Police Selection’, 286.

57. M.J. Hickman and B.A. Reaves, Local Police Departments, 2000 (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, 2003).

58. M.S. Stroshine, ‘Information Technology Innovations in Policing’, in Critical Issues in Policing, ed. R.G. Dunham and G.P. Alpert, 5th ed. (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2005).

59. V. Hughes and P.E.D. Love, ‘Toward Cyber-Centric Management of Policing: Back to the Future with Information and Communication Technology’, Industrial Management & Data Systems 104, no. 7 (2004): 604–12.

60. G.D. Breetzke, ‘Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Policing in South Africa: A Review’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 29, no. 4 (2006): 723–40.

61. Igbinovia, ‘The Future of the Nigeria Police’, 547.

62. Bruce Glassock, ‘Letter to IACP colleagues’. Alexandria, VA: International Association of Chiefs of police (16 October 2001).

63. New York City Police Department, Training Bureau: 2002 Annual Report (New York: NYPD, 2002), 1.

64. M. Deflem, ‘Israel Undercover: An Ethnography of Counter-Terrorism in Jerusalem Unit YAMAS’, Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology meetings in Los Angeles, 1–4 November 2006.

65. S. Ressner, ‘Social Network Analysis as an Approach to Combat Terrorism: Past, Present, and Future Research’, Homeland Security Affairs 2, no. 2 (2006): 1–10, retrieved from: http://www.hsaj.org/pages/volume2/issue2/pdfs/2.2.8.pdf

66. Manhattan Institute, Hard Won Lessons: Policing Terrorism in the United States (New York: Manhattan Institute, 2005).

67. Ibid., 9.

68. See p. 12 of P. Nesser, ‘Jihad in Europe – A Survey of the Motivations for Sunni Islamist Terrorism in Post-Millennium Europe’, FFI/RAPPORT, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, 2004.

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