Mirich, John J.

Voris, Eugene

English

Northwestern University Illinois, School of Law: Scholarly Commons

Journal of Criminal Law and CriminologyVolume 56Issue 4 December Article 17Winter 1965Police Science Education in the United States: ANational NeedJohn J. MirichEugene VorisFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclcPart of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and CriminalJustice CommonsThis Criminology is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationJohn J. Mirich, Eugene Voris, Police Science Education in the United States: A National Need, 56 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci.545 (1965)THE JOuRNAL OF CRIMINAL L&w, CRIMINOLOGY AND POLICE SCIENCECopyright 0 1965 by Northwestern University School of IawVol. 56, No. 4Printea in U.S.A.POLICE SCIENCE EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: A NATIONAL NEEDJOHN J. iVITRICH AND EUGENE VORISJohn J. Mirich, Ed.D., is assistant to the President of Treasure Valley Community College, On-tario, Oregon and chairman of the Law Enforcement Department. Dr. Mfirich has served as a citypolice officer and a probation officer prior to the completion of his university studies. He has con-tributed previously to this journal.Eugene Voris, Ed.D., is President of Treasure Valley Community College, Ontario, Oregon.-EDroR.Some of the best legal minds in the UnitedStates are wrestling with recent United StatesSupreme Court, and various State Supreme Court,rulings concerning the IV, V and VI Amendments.Needless to say, law enforcement will probably beaffected more by these interpretations than anyother agency of justice. In fact, it may be so af-fected that ten years from today, the presentofficer will be overwhelmed in comparing thechanges which took place in his duties, his career,and in the American attitude toward law enforce-ment. The significant portions of these Amend-ments for our present consideration are:Amenddment IV... the right of the people to be secure in theirpersons, houses, papers, and effects, againstunreasonable searches and seizures... but uponprobable cause ....Amendmeintt V... be compelled in any criminal case to be awitness against himself, nor be deprived oflife, liberty, or property, without due processof law ....Amendment VI... and to be informed of the nature and causeof the accusation; to be confronted with thewitnesses against him... and to have the assist-ance of counsel for his defense.Contrary to much popular opinion, recentfederal and state interpretations of the aboveamendments, turning loose confessed killers,rapists, etc. due to the violation of their rights bylaw officers, will serve as a final result, to do moregood for local law enforcement, than harm. Thesedecisions make it imperative that city, county,and state police nationally become professionalpersons, professionally-trained in crime detection,crime prevention, the individual right of theinnocent as well as the guilty, etc. The harm done,of course, is the returning to society of confessedwrong-doers who are free to commit the same, ormore serious crimes, in addition to wasting theefforts of the community and the officer. Theseemingly worthlessness of apprehending theguilty, only to see them released because of sometechnicality not understood or adhered to by theofficer, serves to dishearten the law enforcementcommunity. However, the amount of harm doneto local law enforcement is negligible compared tothe benefits which will be derived by realizing thatthe day of the non-trained or il-trained officer isover, and the day of the professionalization oflocal law enforcement must soon begin. Societycannot afford nonprofessional persons attemptingto do professional work, but it has been at faultbecause of its indifference to local law enforcement,and the plight of the policemen.One of the most important, and most neglected,areas of professional education in this nation isthat of police science. For too many years we haveexpected local law enforcement to recruit itsmanpower from the ranks of the unqualified duenot only to public disinterest and neglect, butalso to a serious lack of communication betweenlaw enforcement and the citizenry. The time hascertainly arrived where the social scientist, andthe police rank and file, must acquaint the publicwith the deep need for police science educationin every public junior college, college, and uni-versity in this land. California's emphasis onpolice training at this level must become a nationalemphasis with the other states instituting thistype of education in their tax-supported schools.JOHN J. MIRICH AND EUGENE VORISWiY TRAIN LOCAL LAW OFFICERS?A local officer must enforce the law on a splitsecond, many times, whereas the district attorneyor the judge may have hours, weeks, or evenmonths to ponder over an eventual decision in agiven matter. Hence the officer stands a betterchance of making serious errors of judgment whichmay result in a ruined career for an innocentperson, or an unwarranted serious charge for apetty violator. Since the policeman is the legalenforcement arm of the state, and the state repre-sentative who enforces the law on a face-to-facerelationship, he must be as familiar with the lawshe enforces as the district attorney who prosecutesthe offender, or the judge who eventually eitherreleases, fines, or commits him.When one witnesses the extremely complicatedscientific methods of crime detection with whichthe local officer must be thoroughly familiar if heis to apprehend the criminal, he certainly cannotagree with the shallowness of some public reason-ing, "it takes a crook to catch a crook", "ex-wrestlers and boxers make the best police officers",or, "he cannot earn a living in any other mannerso he became a policeman". For too many yearsthe standards of police work have lagged far be-hind those of sister agencies of probation, parole,and social work even though the duties of thoseagencies are no more complicated, and certainlynot more important, than policing.Some of the benefits to be realized from anacademic training in police science as a pre-req-uisite to enforcing laws and ordinances on a face-toface relationship would be:1. A knowledge of the fundementals of finger-printing, ballistics, handwriting identifica-tions, microscopic evidence, spectroscopicevidence, and interrogation is imperative tothe modern policeman. Thus he would bebetter prepared to apprehend criminals.2. Deterrence of criminal behavior through thetraining in mob psychology, social dis-organization, delinquence control, etc.3. More respect for the law and the law officerby the public in that not only will academictraining in police science make the officermore proficient in criminal detection andcrime prevention, but it will make him moreaware of public relations, and in turn thepublic more aware of his community contri-bution.4. Professional pride for police officers, in ad-dition to higher economic social status, andcommunity respect.5. A guarantee of more adequate protection ofthe individual rights of each citizen. Througheducation of the national and state consti-tutions the officer will better understandthose rights guaranteed each citizen to besecure in his person.A profession is so labeled because it sets stand-ards and regulates its membership. Local lawenforcement has professional duties, even thougha national set of standards have not been estab-lished. It should be encouraged to set minimumeducational training standards so that in the nearfuture the local law officer will enjoy the prestige,will fulfill his duties, and will develop the "espritde corps" so evident in the FBI, Treasury Dept.and other federal law agencies.For many years it has been said that if highacademic and other standards were required theywould exclude so many persons that local lawenforcement would not be able to recruit enoughofficers to function properly. Further, it has beenlong argued that salaries must be raised beforequalified persons will apply. The above argumentscannot stand up to the fact that for years the FBIhas required high academic, physical, and moralqualifications and at present does not have aserious lack of applicants. In addition if economicregards of law enforcement are advanced beforeacademic standards are required, more of thosewho lack training and ability to become pro-ficient officers will seek a career in law enforce-ment. We have long been aware of those un-qualified persons who seek police positions forself-enhancement. The long-standing, excellentleadership in police science in California publicinstitutions, Michigan State University, Universityof Louisville, Northwestern University, amongothers, has demonstrated that police scienceeducation can be as profitably instituted in thehigher institutions as any other curriculum andcan be as adequately taught, if not far more so,than any in-service training given by the locallaw enforcement departments. The importance ofin-service education is acknowledged, but a fewweeks of recruit training or quarterly and yearlypolice science seminars cannot serve as a substi-tute to the long-term curriculum which can onlybe taught over a period of years in an institutiondesigned for police training. A three-day session,for instance on mob psychology, is far less effective[Vol. 56POLICE SCIENCE EDUCATION: A NATIONAL NEEDto the policeman than would be a quarter's coursein the psychology of human behavior with mobpsychology included. In addition, a short in-service seminar cannot replace the quarter'spolice science course in laws of search and seizure.Another argument against professional policetraining has been the old-standby, "experience isthe best teacher." Certainly experience can teachmuch, but one wonders how many of our citizenshave had their individual rights tread upon bypolicemen who received all of their education inthis manner? The rights of a citizenry in a democ-racy are so important we cannot afford to longallow our police officers to be so "trained." We donot allow aspirants to the medical profession, norlegal profession, to practice upon the populacewithout professional preparation, nor should weexpect police officers to learn to be police officerssolely be "practice." Again, it is odd that thissocial order has long expected its lawyers to behighly trained, although we are aware allegedviolators are accused, arrested, and brought tojustice by a police officer, who in many cases,probably knows very little more about the law hejust enforced than does the person in his custody.The old, worn-out argument that we cannotafford to pay higher wages to attract more qualifiedapplicants is very shallow indeed, when onerealizes that the officer must: 1. deter crime, 2. ap-prehend law violators, and 3. protect the innocent.Duties of law enforcement embody all thoseprinciples so dearly held in a democratic society,yet we cannot afford not to obtain the funds to hiretrained personnel to guarantee those hallowedprinciples. Furthermore, it is generally known thatan adequately trained officer will probably determore crime and apprehend more violators than anuntrained officer; hence, he will probably save thecommunity several times more money than heearns per year.SUGGESTED METHODS OF PUBLICENLIGHTENMIENTThose of us who teach in law enforcement cur-riculums and those who enforce the law musttake it upon ourselves to enlighten the public ofthe great need for police education. It has beensaid, and it is probably true, that we have notbeen too interested in keeping the public informedas to our goals, objectives, interests, and needs.In addition, social scientists have pointed outthat neither the public, nor in fact many local lawenforcement officers actually, know what theduties of the officer are, what his authority em-bodies, and what the citizen's individual rightsguarantee that police officers shall, and shall notdo in the course of an arrest for an alleged violationof the law. We must become more aware of ourduties and responsibilities.It is suggested that:1. City, county, and state police organizationstake immediate steps to create public-policepublic relations bureau (where they arenon-existent) to inform the citizenry ofpolice goals and duties.a. The various agencies might have a weeklyradio, a TV program or newspaper columnoutlining the police responsibilities, cit-izens responsibilities, criminal detectionmethods and problems, request for paren-tal, community cooperation etc.b. The various local police agencies mightdecide to send officers on speaking engage-ments to public functions, which has beenan important area of public-police re-lations long neglected by many officerswho feel that their duty is crime detectionalone. This type of community programcan bring about much community supportfor the law agency.c. School safety programs sponsored by thepolice.d. Service and professional club speakingengagements.2. National professional police groups shouldsponsor more national programs of publiceducation for the need for the development ofpolice science education in state supportedjunior colleges, colleges, and universities.a. Through speakers bureaus.b. Through statistical data available fromdepartments with trained officers showingreduction of crime through detection andprevention.c. Through studies of community responsesof citizens with trained police comparedwith those whose police are nontrained(anonymous).d. Sending police science training materialsand training syllabuses to institutionswho lack a police training program andencouraging the adoption of same.3. The elected state senators, representatives,JOHN f. MIRICH AND EUGENE VORISand state superintendents of education shouldbe informed of the great need for policescience in the higher institutions. In addition,the local, county, and state teachers organi-zations should be made aware of the need ofpolice science education in each state. Fur-thermore, local, regional, and state policeorganizations should solicit the assistanceof service clubs, PTA's, churches, etc. topetition the State Boards of Educationand the higher institutions to institute policescience curriculums.STMMIARYOne of the authors has written articles for thisjournal in the past where he gave what he felt wereminimum academic, psychological, mental, moraland physical qualifications for local law officers.'In addition, he suggested at that time two yearsof police science education be a minimum require-ment for those who enforce laws on a face-to-facerelationship (since then he has reason to feel fouryears of education should be a minimum). Further-more, he believes that a minimum four years ofeducation in law enforcement would be necessaryfor Police Administrators, and Police Specialists,and even the bare minimum of two years prepara-tion would have to be raised in the future, but isa good starting point. His suggested proposal forthe certification of local law officers was designedas one way that a framework for eventual pro-1 Micri, J Hom J. Certification of Local Law En-forcement: A Must, JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW,CRI NOLOGY, AND PoLIcE SCIENCE, Vol. 49, pp. 92-95, May-June 1958. Mnucn, JOHN J. The QualifiedPoliceman: The Backbone of Society, JOURNAL OFCRIMINAL LAW, CRIMINOLOGY AND POLICE SCIENCE,Vol. 50, pp. 315-317, 1959.fessionalization could be devised, however, he feltthat others were available and possible.This paper is written in the hope of encouraginglocal police enforcement officials in petitioningtheir elected officers, and community and stateleaders to institute police science curriculums instate supported higher institutions. Although oneof the most important phases of police scienceeducation would be for the education of local en-forcement officials, these programs can easily beexpanded to include probation, parole, penology,and social work among others. In addition, thetwo year police science program in the juniorcolleges should be coordinated with the four yearprograms in the degree-granting four year institu-tions so that a person who cares to receive a B.A.or B.S., M.A., or even a Ph.D. degree may do so.If local law enforcement is ever to become atrue profession it must develop academic andother standards and must regulate its membership.In order to develop academic standards it musthave curriculums designed for these standards. Ifschools do not exist, it is imperative that they beset-up. Since leadership must always originatefrom those who have a need, our work is cut outfor us-there is a great national need to educatelocal law officers.REFERENCES1. Gideon vs. Waignwright (1963) 372 U. S. 355, 83S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed. 2D799.2. State vs. Neely 79 Ore. Adv. Fh. 257, 395 Pac. 2nd.557 (1964).3. Escobedo vs. Illinois (1963) 84 S.Ct. 1758.4. Mapp vs. Ohio (1961) 367 U. S. 643 81 S.Ct. 1684,6 L.Ed. 2D 1081.5. GERMANN, A. C., DAY, F., AN,\D GALLATI, R. R. J.,Ai INTRODUCTION TO LAW ENFORCEMENT, CharlesC Thomas, Springfield, Ill., 1964.[Vol. 56

Police Science Education in the United States: A National Need

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Police Science Education in the United States: A National Need

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