Brains, Not Boots, on the Street

The UK policing community is now digesting the substantial report prepared by Tom Winsor on pay and other conditions for the British police. The document should be of interest to Canadian police leaders and political decision-makers as it speaks directly to concerns that are relevant for the future of policing in any country:

Attracting the Best & Brightest for Policing

Among the more than 120 recommendations offered by Mr. Winsor is the need to make policing an attractive career option for educated individuals. He is recommending that a minimum entrance requirement of three A-levels be introduced, along with annual tests to ensure physical fitness for duty.

The debate over the requirement for some kind of undergraduate degree for an entry-level police officer is not new. The research to date is not definitive, although it has been demonstrated that police officers with higher levels of formal education are less likely to receive public complaints and tend to be more effective at defusing tense situations through the use of verbal and conflict resolution skills. However, if modern policing seeks to become an actual profession and not merely a public service that has no specific Body of Knowledge to guide its functional role in society, there needs to be more emphasis placed upon the training, education and development continuum. As we see faculties of law, medicine, management, etc. in nearly any university across Canada, policing cannot lay claim to true professional status unless there are similar faculties for policing within those institutions.

The UK is moving toward a professional institute of policing as part of the current government's reform agenda. Canada has some well-organized and highly committed associations that speak to the concerns and issues relevant to policing in this country. However, as yet, there is no substantial effort to professionalize the craft of policing. This may be seen in the patch-work of senior executive development programs offered across the country and their overall failure to provide substantial, academically sound curricula for this purpose. With programs such as the Institute for Strategic International Studies (ISIS) offered through the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police we see that efforts are being made to mimic true educational programming, but without the substance and subject matter expertise that is found in higher-level initiatives offered by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) in Great Britain and the Senior Managment Institute for Police (SMIP) sponsored by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) in collaboration with the Kennedy School of Management, Harvard University.

The goal of a Canadian police profession is an excellent one that should be pursued with rigour. There's much to be learned from the UK, the US and other jurisdictions. In the face of dramatically dire financial circumstances, Canadian police organizations should not be focused on "Boots on the Street" but rather on getting brains on the beat.