The Quantum Leap: Police Recruit Training and the Case for Mandating Higher Education Pre-entry Schemes

Abstract

Whilst legislation and policy remain reasonably static, the milieu that modern day police officers have to negotiate is multi-dimensional and diverse. The post-modern world is constantly dynamic and complex, dictating that the benefits and attributes of an academic education are required to manage the demands of everyday policing. This article examines the vital role higher education can play in producing critical reflective recruits for the police service. Implicit in this argument, is the service ultimately becomes a graduate profession. The core business of higher education is critical reflection and it has the experience and expertise to prepare recruits for the turmoils of contemporary policing. This article contemplates the capacity of higher education to respond to the diversity of learning styles of students in nurturing critical reflection. It continues by discussing the emerging relationship between the service and academia against the backcloth of the reform agenda and provides a critique of current post-entry academic programmes, highlighting their shortcomings in terms of pedagogy and value. In contrast, the article extols the virtues of pre-entry programmes and argues that the service should have confidence in academia assuming sole responsibility for training recruits. The article concludes with a snapshot of the collaboration between Leicestershire Police and De Montfort University that offers a national model for police recruitment.