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12 Am. J. Police 101 (1993)
An Issue for Policing - Educational Level and Job Satisfacation: A Research Note

handle is hein.journals/ajpol12 and id is 251 raw text is: American Journal of Police Vol. 12, No. 2 1992 101

AN ISSUE FOR POLICING-EDUCATIONAL
LEVEL AND JOB SATISFACTION:
A RESEARCH NOTE
M. L. Dantzker
Loyola University of Chicago
Although the idea of college-educated police officers was first in-
troduced by August Vollmer in the early 1900s, it has really only been
during the last twenty-five years that police administrators, college pro-
fessors, and criminal justice experts have strongly debated the necessity
of requiring police officers to possess a college education (Miller &
Fry, 1976; Sherman, 1978; Carter, Sapp, & Stephens, 1989; Carter &
Sapp, 1991). The advocates of such a requirement have noted that
college education improves mandatory skills such as communication
(written and oral), critical thinking, decision making, and better under-
standing of human relations (Sherman, 1978; Worden, 1990; Carter &
Sapp, 1990). Opponents of the college education requirement have
voiced concern over issues such as a possible discriminatory effect on
minorities, limitations on applicant pools, and the possibilities that
college-educated officers would be more troublesome because they ex-
pect to be promoted quicker and are quick to criticize management
(Hudzik, 1978; Sherman, 1978, Powell, 1984; Carter et al., 1989;
Carter & Sapp, 1991). Another early concern of opponents to the col-
lege degree was that college-educated officers would become dissatis-
fied and restless too soon and leave policing long before retirement
(Sherman, 1978). It is this last concern for which the research reported
within is based.
During the past few years, I have observed a growing concern
among police recruiters and top administrators for their agencies' abili-
ties to attract and retain college-educated officers. It is noted, however,
that this concern appears to be stronger in agencies that do not require a

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