NCJ Number
137664
Date Published
1991
Length
41 pages
Annotation
This 1989 study examined the impact of a college requirement on the proportionate recruitment of minorities for police work.
Abstract
The first phase of the study was a comprehensive review of related research in police education, and the second phase was a survey of 699 State, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies. The third phase consisted of site visits to selected police departments to collect policy-related materials and explore educational issues in greater depth through document review and interviews. The final phase of the research involved extensive legal research on the bona fide occupational qualifications (BFOQ), discrimination in employment, and affirmative action practices. The data indicate that in the aggregate, law enforcement agencies in the research population had minority group members in proportions comparable to the general population. Educational levels of minority police officers were approximately the same as white officers at the undergraduate level and higher than white officers at the graduate level. Although a number of factors make college education disproportionately inaccessible to minorities, the courts have ruled that job requirements justify making a college degree a qualification for employment. Apparently there is an adequate pool of both minority and majority college-educated men and women interested in police employment. A college education can be both empirically and legally justified as a BFOQ and should be established. 4 tables, 2 figures, and 74 references