NCJ Number
196307
Journal
International Journal of Police Science and Management Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer 2002 Pages: 148-164
Date Published
2002
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article examines the changes in police vocational training in the Netherlands.
Abstract
Changes in Dutch society include increases in the “knowledge economy,” increasing multiculturalism, globalization, and the loss of exclusive decision making powers in the government. There are growing political and social demands for enhanced police performance in areas of public regulation of social life, respect for personal physical integrity, a reduction in the use of violence, and effective approach to international criminality. The Dutch police organization has had a number of developments occur in recent decades, including a move from a classical role to a network approach, a change from uniformity to pluriformity, and a change from instrumental policy steering to leadership, focusing on professional cooperation and self-monitoring. Innovation in police training is built on two pillars: (1) the development of police science; and (2) a new arrangement for the system of police vocational education and training. Police training in 2002 will be based on unambiguous job profiles, defined in terms of competencies consisting of four domains: job related and methodological, organizational and strategic, social-communicative and cultural-normative, and learning and style competencies. Police education is characterized by business training, cognition and skills, dual learning, a qualification structure, socialization, and several learning environments. The innovation in education is sufficient for examining the possible effects and risks in a broader perspective. First is the risk related to the process of implementation and the conditions under which this takes place. Second, there is the cultural and organizational effect of further-reaching professionalization on the police and third, the political and democratic aspects. The success of this innovation process is dependent on the implementation and the support within the forces. 1 table, 38 references