Question

With very few exceptions, each state has a commission, council or board that is responsible for setting the minimum qualifications to be a public police officers in that state. Generally these regulatory bodies are referred to as POSTs. The POST agencies issue "certifications, or in other words, the liccense to serve as a police officer in that state. Maryland has the Maryland Police Training Commission (MPTC) While individual agencies may set their hiring standards higher than the state's "certification" requirement, all applicants to be public police officers must at least meet the standard.

No state's POST has a full four year college degree as a minimum education standard to be a public police officer. Why?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) The Peace Officers Standards Training (POST) is a commission that offers minimum education and training standards for law enforcement officers. Therefore the POST does establish minimum education and training standards.

Law enforcement officers who join POST can go on to become a police or sheriff etc. They will be trained further and so it is not the minimum training. Therefore, the POST does serve as a minimum selection standard for law enforcement officers

The POST does offer in-house training programs. Personnel that is sworn in, may require additional training and tests, depending on the department they are sworn into.

Although the POST does not have the same college requirements like a standard office job, they do require candidates to be trained in coursework that is relevant to the field. This means that the POST requires officers to take a high school or 2-year college equivalent course in a relevant training programme.

This enables an individual to spend time focusing on a relevant certificate while they are still able to qualify as members of the force when they are young.