NCJ Number
116021
Journal
American Journal of Police Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Dated: (1988) Pages: 1-27
Date Published
1988
Length
27 pages
Annotation
Police executives who want to require higher education as a qualification for law enforcement employment should follow the logic used in the case of Davis v. City of Dallas to overcome concerns that higher education cannot be quantitatively validated to show job-relatedness and that such a requirement should be discriminatory toward minorities.
Abstract
The successful arguments of the City of Dallas relied on a qualitative demonstration of the complexity of the police task, the public risk associated with policing, and the use of expert opinion to support these issues. A study performed by the Police Executive Research Forum provides additional support for the city's views on the issue. Other police agencies wanting to establish educational requirements for employment or promotion should first establish a policy document outlining the rationale and justification for the action. This serves as a way both for informing employees of evolving expectation and for establishing a clear rational that may prevent any challenge of the requirement in court or labor arbitrations. The planning and policy document should also be specific to an individual agency. The policy paper must acknowledge that the requirement of higher education does have a demonstrated overall discriminatory effect on minority group members and must also show that higher education is a 'valid business necessity' with a 'manifest relationship' to the occupation. The educational requirement must be shown to be a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ), as established through job-task validation. This validation can be done qualitatively through expert opinion. The policy paper should also note that the issues of public risk and responsibility reduce the burden on the police department to validate the BFOQ. The paper should also document enhanced affirmative action programs to overcome the discriminatory requirement. List of additional elements of the policy paper and 27 references.