Reconciling Higher Educational Standards and Minority Recruitment: The New York City Model

• NCJ Number: 142830
• Author(s): H Williams
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 8 pages
• Grant Number(s): 86-IJ-CX-0025
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: Police Foundation; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Police Foundation Reports

Annotation

The New York City Police Department's Cadet Corps, created in 1985, is an innovative program designed to bring officers with higher educational levels into the ranks of the Nation's largest police force.

Abstract

The Cadet Corps program allows full-time sophomores in New York City's colleges and universities who meet the necessary qualifications to receive $9,000 toward future tuition, $6,000 in payment for work and $3,000 in an interest- free loan that is forgiven if the cadet serves 2 years as a police officer. The program has five major objectives: (1) increase the educational level of the police department; (2) test a more rigorous recruit selection process; (3) increase the police department's representativeness; (4) increase the orientation toward community policing; and (5) improve leadership skills of new officers. In 1986, the first year of the Cadet Corps program, only 134 of 1,479 persons expressing an interest passed all aspects of the screening process and qualified as cadets. All of the first four Cadet Corps classes were predominantly male; 70 percent were white, 15 percent were black, and 13.5 percent were Hispanic. Once in the program, cadets were issued uniforms and instruction manuals and were required to undergo physical training and attend classes in law, police department orientation, social science, and communications. They also went through a 3-day leadership and teamwork program. As of January 1991, half of the 1986 cohort had completed the program and had been promoted to police officer. When compared to other classmates in the police academy, Cadet Corps recruits placed more emphasis on a community orientation and less on traditional policing strategies, were less likely to believe that laws should be rigidly enforced, were more likely to believe that good police officers can depart from standard operating procedures to solve a problem, were more likely to consider a college education important to their work, and were less likely to think that citizen complaints are an inevitable part of police work. 3 references, 1 table, and 4 figures