When Al Miller, a Sergeant with the New Orleans Police Department and member of Louisiana Lodge #2, graduated from Upper Iowa University with a bachelor’s degree, he joined the ranks of working officers with college degrees in criminal justice, one of the most popular degree programs for LEOs. For Miller, who wanted to improve his skills and knowledge of police work, the criminal justice program had direct benefits. He became eligible for the department’s next lieutenant exam and earned an administrative position working with his commander. He found that his degree helped him manage his new duties, including supervising 50 to 60 people, providing a training schedule and monitoring new academy graduates. Going back to school also improved his written communication and administrative skills for dealing with departmental personnel.
Like Miller, many officers are pursuing college degrees to advance their careers. An officer with a degree is likely to stay with his or her agency longer and be better suited to take on higher-level positions as they become available. Today’s patrol officer with a degree may be tomorrow’s command officer.
Officers with college degrees may also be less likely to receive discipline. A 2002 preliminary study noted a pattern in discipline meted out by the state of Florida’s Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission to law enforcement personnel. Those officers with at least an associate degree — roughly 42% of the officers studied — accounted for slightly more than 25% of all disciplinary actions issued over a five-year period. In comparison, the officers with high school degrees or GEDs — almost 58% of the population studied — received nearly 75% of the total number of disciplinary actions. (Check out “Discipline and Educational Level of Law Enforcement Officers” for more information on the study.)
The benefits of higher education are clear. But today’s student officers are faced with the choice of a range of degree programs. Many choose to study criminal justice or criminology because courses in those degree programs are familiar. While criminal justice degrees are a solid choice for LEOs, not every officer who ventures inside the ivory tower chooses to go down the traditional path.
Some supervisors encourage their officers to earn degrees in nontraditional subjects that will help them develop skills and knowledge that will shape them into well-rounded people. An officer with a degree in divinity, for example, may be more empathetic to the community’s needs, while an officer with a human resources degree might be more responsive to employee morale issues.
Perhaps the most popular nontraditional major for LEOs is public administration. Adam Chase, a member of California Lodge #1 and a Del Mar Park Ranger, recently earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Upper Iowa University. With this knowledge, Chase developed the city of Del Mar’s reserve officer program as a means to help save money in law enforcement costs.
Now Chase is pursuing a master’s degree in homeland security with an emphasis in health care from Penn State. Homeland security is related to criminal justice. Both incorporate investigations, gathering intelligence and security protection assessments, but homeland security is its own discipline. Chase would like to combine his knowledge of public administration, homeland security and health care, so that if he decides to move away from a law enforcement vocation he could later find employment with a public health department, for example, helping prepare for a pandemic or chemical or biological contamination disaster.
Like public administration, organizational leadership has become another popular field of study for LEOs, especially in the last three years. It’s no surprise that every organization is interested in improving its operations, and a degree in organizational leadership helps officers develop skills that they can later apply to their work at their agencies. James C. Hirko of Kutztown Borough Police Department and Pennsylvania Lodge #17 earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership. According to Hirko, his bachelor’s degree has improved his depth of knowledge of departmental operations. Hirko’s degree has also qualified him to substitute teach in a nearby school district. Another benefit of nontraditional degree programs is their associated skill sets, which may prove to be valuable for anyone considering a second career.
Similar to Hirko, Sergeant Eric Anspach of the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Highway Patrol Division and Arizona Lodge #32 earned his bachelor’s degree in management with a concentration in leadership from American Military University, a National Fraternal Order of Police University (NFOPU) consortium school. “Earning my bachelor’s degree will certainly help in the future when I promote, as it will give me valuable and beneficial education and experience,” says Anspach, an honors graduate. In the meantime, he has applied what he learned in his management courses to the day-to-day leadership of his employees.
For David Liang, a New Orleans Police Officer and member of Louisiana Lodge #2, a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Upper Iowa University proved to be an excellent degree choice, as Liang deals with quality-of-life issues in the French Quarter. His work experience and degree in sociology have been assets in dealing with the area’s varied population. In addition to reaching a personal goal, Liang has also enhanced his career with a promotion.
As these members’ stories show, no one-size-fits-all program exists for student officers. Whether the goal is to advance one’s career, move into another field or just improve one’s personal life, officers have a lot of choices when it comes to deciding what to study. Finally, the best advice may be simply this: Officers should think of themselves as products and select programs based on what will make them more marketable in their current agencies — and beyond.
Beyond Criminal Justice
Not every working officer studies criminal justice to further his or her career. The following are some of the most common nontraditional degree programs for LEOs:
- Emergency management
- Homeland security
- Divinity
- Human resource management
- Health care management
- Organizational leadership
- Public administration
- Intelligence studies
- Environmental studies
- Computer science
- Information technology
- Family counseling
* This article originally appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of FOP Journal and is reprinted with permission from 911Media.
Comments are closed.