by Gregory Lebens-Higgins
The problems with policing in the United States have become too glaring to hide. “Use of force incidents” are now regularly captured on body worn cameras and bystander cellphones, while accountability for improper conduct remains in short supply. Though calls to defund the police exploded following the murder of George Floyd, those hesitant to take a radical stance suggest more moderate reforms including increased training and higher education.
In his State of the Union Address, after invoking Tyre Nichols’ brutal murder at the hands of Memphis police officers, President Biden called to “give law enforcement the training they need, hold them to higher standards, and help them succeed in keeping everyone safe.” The transformative potential envisioned by Biden is questionable—during his campaign Biden argued we have to “fundamentally change the way police are trained” …by instructing them to shoot people in the leg rather than the heart. (A confused interpretation of “fundamental change,” in my view).
Previous administrations have also gestured in this direction. In 2015, the Obama Administration’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing recommended encouraging and incentivizing higher education for law enforcement officers. Even Trump, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, signed an executive order calling for police training supervised by independent credentialing bodies.
In Congress, the stalled George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would mandate the “implementation of policies, practices, and procedures addressing training and instruction to comply with accreditation standards” in areas including “bias awareness”—along with the ominous sounding “tactical and defensive strategy.” And in California, the PEACE Act passed in 2021 will lead to the development of a “modern policing degree program.”
Advocates of these initiatives often argue that police in the United States need fewer hours of training than plumbers or cosmetologists. Also commonly cited is a 2010 study in Police Quarterly, arguing that police officers with a four-year degree are less likely to use force. Other theorized benefits include better knowledge of the law and a comprehensive understanding of the criminal “justice” system, improved communication, and more ethical decision-making.
Higher education and training for police officers appeals to a liberalism that values professionalism and meritocracy as ends in themselves. A liberalism that reflexively believes we can fix our institutions by staffing them with more qualified personnel. However, such investments carry costly tradeoffs that detract from core issues. Merely trying to create “better” police officers will not address the systemic failures of policing and ignores the broader transformations necessary to address safety.
Militarized instruction instills a “warrior mentality,” and officers are drilled in worst-case-scenarios that make them quick to escalate encounters. The practice of policing cannot be made more humane through training.
As Alex Vitale argues in The End of Policing, “American police receive a great deal of training” already. Dedicated police academies exist in many jurisdictions, along with ongoing training requirements. The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that in 2018, police in state and local law enforcement agencies received an average of 833 hours of basic training, along with 508 hours of field training. The New York City Police Department dedicates around 2 percent of its annual budget—over $100 million—to training. (Ninety-two percent of this $5 billion budget is allocated to salaries, wages, and overtime).
This training is actually part of the problem, explains Vitale. Militarized instruction instills a “warrior mentality,” and officers are drilled in worst-case-scenarios that make them quick to escalate encounters. The practice of policing cannot be made more humane through training. Policing involves protecting private property, perpetrating violence, and maintaining class order. Teaching these skills and values necessarily reinforces the Thin Blue Line—an organizational culture that sees police as safeguarding Western civilization against barbarians. The oppressive heritage of policing is self-reproducing.
Police would receive the economic advantage of higher education while continuing to enforce barriers to advancement for the working class. Racial and economic obstacles to a college education will also carry over into who ultimately gets hired as an officer.
Right now, in the Weelaunee Forest near Atlanta, Georgia, activists are braving arrest, terrorist charges, and murder to resist the installation of an 85-acre training facility. “Cop City” will cost $90 million and include “a mock city block in which to practice raids and other militarized procedures.” These resources will only increase the ability of police to subjugate minorities and dissenting voices, and the methods refined in Cop City will proliferate throughout the security state.
While I am an advocate of free higher education, extending this benefit to police, rather than on a universal basis, is a regressive measure. Police would receive the economic advantage of higher education while continuing to enforce barriers to advancement for the working class. Racial and economic obstacles to a college education will also carry over into who ultimately gets hired as an officer.
Well-educated police officers cost more at both the front and back end. On the front end are higher education and training programs subsidized by the government. Additional officer training programs would be funded by federal, state and local tax dollars, and tuition costs for officers attending college would be reimbursed through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
On the back end, higher education demands a higher salary. In 2022, Rochester City Newspaper reported that Rochester had “enter[ed] the era of the $250,000 police officer.” Admittedly, much of this was due to overtime. But with college degrees police officers will theoretically become more skilled, and their value in the job market will increase. Officers will also be paid for any additional training required. Between these labor costs and the money allocated toward training programs, police budgets will become further bloated at the likely expense of welfare programs.
The Police Quarterly study, though showing a negative correlation between police officers with degrees and their use of force, finds no such correlation with the probability of an arrest or search. Even highly educated police must continue to enforce unjust laws. Drug use, homelessness, and mental health will still be criminalized, and the inner city will remain occupied. Police will continue to use broad authorities under the 4th Amendment to stop people for thinly enumerated “reasonable suspicions” and to perform invasive searches.
The idea that a college education makes people more humane is belied by countless examples. In the name of profit, CEOs with MBAs tear apart the environment, overstep regulations, and exploit workers.
While more highly educated police continue to enforce an unjust system, they will presumably be better at doing so. As a public defender, many of my clients have cases dismissed because the police have not properly done their jobs. Accusatory instruments charging defendants with a crime are often defective because they are missing an element or are incorrectly filled out. Cases regularly get dismissed on speedy trial grounds when arrest warrants are not timely executed. Cases dismissed on such grounds are typically low-level misdemeanors or violations. In my experience, the criminal punishment system is not the proper forum to address these behaviors in the first place. It does not achieve the desired outcomes of preventing harm or restoring victims. Police who perform more effectively will only ensure that these low-level crimes are penalized regardless.
The idea that a college education makes people more humane is belied by countless examples. In the name of profit, CEOs with MBAs tear apart the environment, overstep regulations, and exploit workers. President Obama, highly admired among liberals for his intelligence, oversaw deadly drone attacks and condoned the indefinite detention of suspected “terrorists.” Similar atrocities have been directed by other American Presidents and their college-educated advisors. There is no reason to think that college-educated police will demonstrate any higher level of compassion.
Mariame Kaba, an advocate for the abolition of the prison-industrial-complex, is not opposed outright to police reform. However, in We Do This ‘Til We Free Us, she urges that discussions of reform begin with the questions “how will we decrease the numbers of police” and “how will we defund the institution?” Reforms that allocate more money to police must be opposed. Sinking more resources into policing only serves to further cement this broken institution.
What is needed to ensure we live in a world where we are all safe is transformative justice. We must guarantee access to food, shelter, and other necessities; grant people more control over their lives—from their workplace to their free time; provide more holistic education; have more honest conversations about mental health and drug use; and increase access to mediation and non-carceral solutions. If we channel our activist energy toward advocating reforms like increased training or higher education standards, we are missing out on opportunities to make these greater demands. Ultimately, says Kaba, “[w]e can’t reform police. The only way to diminish police violence is to reduce contact between the public and the police.”