NCJ Number
128690
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1990) Pages: 565-592
Date Published
1990
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relation between police officers' educational attainment and selected occupational attitudes and between educational attainment and performance.
Abstract
Data were obtained for the Police Services Study (PSS) which evaluated the impact of organizational arrangements on police service delivery. The second phase of the PSS, conducted in 1977, collected data from 24 police departments in three metropolitan areas (Rochester, New York, St. Louis, and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida). Both police officers and citizens were interviewed. Study results demonstrated that the effects of college education on inservice police officer attitudes were small. Attitudes of police officers who earned college degrees as preservice students did not differ substantially from those of their less highly educated colleagues. Further, when police officers' performance in police-citizen encounters was measured in terms of citizen evaluations, little or no difference between college-educated and less highly educated officers was detected. Although college-educated police officers may be superior from the perspective of supervisors who find that such officers are more reliable employees and better report writers, they are not superior from the perspective of citizens who are concerned primarily with effective and courteous service. Therefore, the study suggests that police officers' performance and morale will not be affected by policies that encourage inservice education or by college education as an entry requirement. 65 references and 3 tables