U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Raising the Age and Education Requirements for Police Officers: Will Too Many Women and Minority Candidates be Excluded?

NCJ Number
198492
Journal
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management Volume: 25 Issue: 4 Dated: 2002 Pages: 789-802
Author(s)
Lisa Kay Decker; Robert G. Huckabee
Editor(s)
Lawrence F. Travis
Date Published
2002
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study examined the impact and affects of raising the age and education requirements for new police recruits, specifically for women and minorities, using the Indianapolis Police Department as a case study.
Abstract
This study addressed the recent interest nationally in increasing the age and educational requirements for police officers and the impact this would have on the ability of police agencies to hire women and minority officers. The study began with a literature review addressing the trend toward increasing the educational requirements for police recruits and literature that identified the problems police agencies encountered when attempting to recruit and hire women and minority officers. Data were obtained from 190 individual subject personnel files maintained by the Indianapolis Police Department. The data was examined to determine what effects the age and educational requirement changes would have on the typical pool of successful Black and female applicants followed by an analysis determining to what extent changes in the age and educational requirements would disqualify from employment those who did not successfully complete their probationary year. During a 5-year period (1992-1996), close to two-thirds of those hired in the Indianapolis Police Department did not have a college degree. It was apparent that a policy requiring a college degree would significantly change the traditional composition of recruit classes and the make-up of the police department. However, it could also streamline the hiring process by reducing the number of applicants, thereby reducing the time and expense in processing applicants. Recruiting efforts would have to become more focused and more aggressive toward the target group. Jobs would also have to become more appealing through enhanced salaries, accelerated promotions, and a more relaxed bureaucratic structure to encourage innovation and initiative. Since fewer than 30 percent of the Indianapolis applicants hired during the above time period would have been eliminated with a policy change increasing the age for applicants to 24 or 25, there would have been little negative impact on the age structure of recruit classes. Overall, a policy change on increased age and education would reduce the number of applicants, thereby reducing the time and cost involved in the hiring process. References