Historical Background of Police Department

Discuss About The Encyclopedia Of Criminology And Criminal Justice.

Police services is one of the most essential facilities that is required to maintain law and order in a city or a town. The civilized countries must have their own developed and highly advanced police services that can handle the various law and order needs of an urban area. The police system is not a new concept and historically there have been police departments in most of the developed cities and towns. In the ancient Greece there were publicly owned slaves who were used as police. In ancient China there was a well-developed police force. These police men were appointed by the local magistrates and they had to report to some higher authority like the governors of the town. In Roman empire other than the army that took Healthcare of the overall policing there was the guards appointed by the citizens. Therefore, it is evident that the policing system and appointing personnel for the post was a very ancient phenomenon.

The police department works for the maintenance of law and order by putting the crime rates ofd a place into check. This has to be done by very carefully keeping a close tab on the activities that might harm the law and order. This needs very advanced surveillance techniques. After this is achieved it is required for the police department to take action against the people wo are deviating from the law of the land and is taking part in crime. The police officers who are given the duty of checking crime and putting to arrest the people who are criminals must be very competent to fulfill their responsibilities.

Therefore, the police department needs a very accurate and efficient system of selection of the personnel, where the officers who are chosen must be fit for the job for which they are selected. Hence in most of the advanced cities the recruitment of the police department includes various physical, mental, and academic tests so that it is ensured that the people who are chosen are very competent for their job.

In this paper the aim is to look at the police recruitment system of the Thompson Valley Police service. A new police commissioner Jason DeVillain has been appointed and the person wants to increase the strength of the police department, for which he wants to change the existing two processes. These are- 1. Police recruit applicants will no longer require completion or partial completion of tertiary education upon entry, and, 2. psychology testing will be removed from the selection process. The viability of the changes and whether these will be actually helpful in the process of increasing the strength of the department will be understood in this report.

Importance of Police Recruitment System

Tertiary education is the higher education which is achieved after the completion of the secondary education at the high school levels. The university education is sometimes determined as the tertiary education by various agencies.

The applicants who wanted to go through the recruitment and application process at the Thompson Valley Police service had to mandatorily complete the tertiary education or at least partially complete the tertiary education process before getting selected at the police service. Mow the police commissioner wants to remove such a clause and he wants to make sure that even the secondary educated potential applicants may apply.

According to  Hallenberg & Cockcroft, (2014)  it is highly recommended that the officers in a police system of a civilized country are recruited after careful consideration of their academic background. The police department is required to look into various cases and that requires different levels of understanding in various historical, scientific and psychological field. A person who has completed his tertiary education is more likely to be comprehending easily such complicated cases. However according to  (Paoline, Terrill & Rossler, 2015). The higher levels of the recruitment must have the mandatory tertiary education, however in the lower levels secondary education and needed physical fitness must be enough for the applicants to be selected. If only people with tertiary education completed are selected for any of the vacancies including higher or lower there may be an acute shortage of employees in the future. In that case it should also be pointed out that in the police system there is the system of upward promotion. The applicants who will be recruited with their secondary education in the lower posts may not be promoted to higher posts in the future, however their own colleagues with tertiary education may be promoted. This may create a sense of lowered morale in the employees with their secondary education (Macvean & Cox, 2012)..

Macvean & Cox (2012) points out the importance of tertiary education to be the foremost in the posts of technical knowledge within the police department. The police department has various other departments running under its jurisdiction, which may include the autopsy department, the criminology department, the forensic department and so on. In all these fields the recruit must be educated in their respective fields in the higher education level (Nhan, 2014). The police department also has to take care of the various sections of the society who are neglected like the older and the homeless population. This needs a section of the recruits to be experts in the field of social care and anthropology.

The Impact of Removing Tertiary Education from Recruitment Process

As it is evident from the above literature review that though there is lesser necessity of tertiary education in the lower levels of the police recruitment, however for the upper levels the officers must be highly educated to properly perform their responsibilities with informed point of view. The decision of the removal of the clause of tertiary education totally from the selection process may give rise to confusion and future problems like what is already mentioned, the higher secondary educated recruits may find it very difficult to get promotion in the police service and to go ahead in their career. Their colleagues who are already tertiary educated may be promoted on the other hand. This may give rise to frustration and confusion.

If it is actually needed that the police recruit applicants will no longer require completion or partial completion of tertiary education upon entry, then the clauses of the recruitment must be changed and it must be clearly designated that the upper posts are open for the candidates who have completed their education required for those posts.

It is very unfavorable for the police department to adopt a system that does not require tertiary education in any level including the lower middle and upper levels of recruitment. The recruitment of the upper levels must be under the condition that the candidates are well educated and informed so that the strategy of policing the city that comes from the top must be with least amount of errors and flaws.

The police officers who patrol the streets and perform similar activities to deter criminals on ground require more of physical strength and fitness than education, therefore these posts can be open for all including the applicants who have not completed their tertiary education. The department should however make it clear that the promotional scopes in that case is reduced.

According to  Ainsworth,  (2012) it is very important to make sure that the personnel who are in the responsibility of the police system must be mentally fit and sound. The job of the police department is very taxing in terms of mental and physical health. The police officers have to be present in various mentally exhausting situations like murder scenes, suicide scenes and where people are extremely injured with third degree burns in their body or with injuries that are unbearable to see for normal people with weaker mental conviction (Lough & Von Treuer, 2013). However, the police personnel have to keep their mind stable and act in the most desired way in such situations.

The Impact of Removing Psychological Testing from Recruitment Process

Rust, J., & Golombok, S. (2014) has pointed out that the police personnel needs to go through continuous phases of mental checkup and counselling so that they may be stress free and happy with their job condition. It is very necessary that the recruitment which is done should be done in a way that the personnel chosen will be mentally sound and flexible. They must be strong enough to maintain their mental stability even in the face of such adverse situation. There are situations where the police department is required to take part in encounters and kill the criminals if necessary, if the police is not mentally very strong they will lose their stability and cannot bring down the miscreants (Kurke & Scrivner, 2013).

In this case it is highly recommended that the practice of psychological testing is not removed by the department from its selection process. There are various reasons behind this, the most important of which is the fact that the police department of the city needs to make sure that the new recruits are mentally strong and can hold their wits in the face of very adverse situations. If it is required to shoot a person a person with a very weak heart and mental strength may not be successful in the process, however the person with a very rigid and strong mind will successful complete the task. The person who is already affected by problems like depression, anxiety and other similar problems may be adversely affected by the stress related to the job and its various requirements. A person with any amount of mental instability if given a gun, or any kind of firearm may cause casualty losing mental stature. Therefore, it is highly recommended not to remove this particular process of psychological testing from the recruitment process of the police department.

In this case the recommendation is to create a balance in recruitment of the secondary educated employees and the tertiary educated employees. In both the cases there must be some scope of promotions. However, it is not recommended that the employees who are recruited with their secondary education be promoted to very high positions where the responsibilities include strategizing police system in the city. There might be opportunities given to the employees to end their higher education while doing their job which will make the system more feasible. The secondary educated employees who are recruited then may receive their tertiary education and then get the opportunity of being promoted to higher positions. The recommendation is to keep it clear for the applicants that the educational qualification of the individual is responsible for their scope of career. If the scope of higher education is opened to the employees while they are doing their job, then it will be a healthy competition among the employees to endeavor towards growing in terms of their career.

This is not at all recommended for the police department to remove the process of psychological testing. It is highly necessary for the department to test the psychological status of the new recruits to understand their capacity to perform their duties in stressful conditions. The applicants who are already depressed and suffer from anxiety should not be accepted in this particular job role.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above paragraphs that the process of police selection is very necessary for a city to maintain its law and order. Absence of proper policing system will cause criminal activities to rise. Therefore, the selection of the police personnel is equally necessary. This paper analyzed the proposed changes put forward by the police commissioner and found that the viability of the first change is possible with some added clauses, however the second change is out of question, and must not be implemented in any case.

Reference

Ainsworth, P. (2012). Psychology and policing. Willan.

Hallenberg, K., & Cockcroft, T. W. (2014). Police and higher education.

Kurke, M. I., & Scrivner, E. M. (Eds.). (2013). Police psychology into the 21st century. Psychology Press.

Lough, J., & Von Treuer, K. (2013). A critical review of psychological instruments used in police officer selection. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 36(4), 737-751.

Macvean, A., & Cox, C. (2012). Police education in a university setting: emerging cultures and attitudes. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 6(1), 16-25.

Macvean, A., & Cox, C. (2012). Police education in a university setting: management cultures and attitudes. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 6(1), 16-25.

Nhan, J. (2014). Police culture. The encyclopedia of criminology and criminal justice.

Paoline III, E. A., Terrill, W., & Rossler, M. T. (2015). Higher education, college degree major, and police occupational attitudes. Journal of criminal justice education, 26(1), 49-73.

Rust, J., & Golombok, S. (2014). Modern psychometrics: The science of psychological assessment. Routledge.