The Link Between Use of Force and Education

I feel that the emphasis placed on higher education is wrong because the "higher education" does not enable you to do your job better, but is simply an artificial class separation induced by the academic elitists. What I feel we need is an academic degree geared toward police. Some of the classes I took at the FBI National Academy were college level classes, but were in such things as Interview and Interrogation, Ethics, and Law. Those are things you can apply directly to the job. I have found absolutely no difference in someone's education when it comes to how smart, articulate or well-mannered an officer is.

What is the crime rates in the areas these different study groups were surveyed? Were all the officers surveyed and studied 1st, 2nd or 3rd watch? Also, were the officers less likely to have use of force that were college educated have more years on the job as other officers in the study? And of course, are the officers that are found to have less use of force reports also the officers that always seem to be last on scene to a disturbance? So many questions, not enough information in this article. Thanks for the try on this one but I think I will just print it out and use it as toliet paper instead.

Check1Check2, you should check YOURSELF!! Talk about an "elitist" attitude.......The bottom line is, a police department should be a reflection of it's law-abiding citizenry. That means white-collar and blue-collar type cops. We need good educated officers to keep us equipped with the best in technology and intelligence-gathering, crime-tracking abilities. However, we certainly need "grunts" out in the field addressing what has been learned through intelligence-gathering. The good thing is, one can be educated and still have the heart of a "grunt", or have little education yet highly educated.......

I liked thors45's comment about "tact and grace." I wonder about the report though. Is this really about education, or about moral ethics? Is it ever NOT wrong for a man to be violent, smug, and arrogant? Columbia, Missouri's infamous (and repulsive) SWAT footage is still pretty fresh on people's minds right now...... The truth is, it don't take a PhD to cultivate decency and good character. On the other hand, the heart that cherishes contempt poisons itself.

So is the study saying that college boys are afraid to get their hands dirty, and the working class guys can recognize violence and deal with it appropriately??? I mean that can be open to interpretation ya know???

I wonder if this data takes into consideration the fact that a lot of our college educated brothers dont seem to make it to the fight calls. Not the ones who got their degrees while working, but the ones who lived at home with mommy and went to school.

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One should be cautious to avoid the correlation equals causation fallacy. It may just be that those with college educations tend to rise quicker through through the ranks, thereby limiting their exposer to use of force situations. Or, one should investigate the correlation between education and officers injured or killed in the line of duty, which could indicate that the more educated officers fall in to the classic FBI category of victim officers that use less force and later force than their fellows, resulting in greater risk to themselves. Or, it may be that those with a college education do legitimately use less force. It may be that they have better communication skills. A lot of more questions result from this study than any real answers.