A Dual Enrollment Police Academy with Master of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice: The Student Officers’ Experiences

Abstract

Despite the recommendations of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2015), the U.S. lacks collaborative innovations in police training between law enforcement and higher education. In this article, we describe the experiences of students in the pilot cohort of a unique program, which combines a Master of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice degree with a full-time police academy. We employed focus groups at the beginning and end of the program to understand the students’ perceptions. The focus groups revealed that the program overall was received positively by the students, and it met their expectations. Our results describe the program’s strengths and challenges as well as the students’ perceived learning outcomes. The findings illustrate that a dual enrollment academy program is feasible for students to complete, but also provide insight into the academy environment including the unique challenges for female students and the process of socialization into police culture.