Police Training: A Modern Approach

American Military University

CMRJ499 Criminal Justice Senior Seminar

April 26, 2011

Police Training: A Modern Approach

This research paper will examine the idea that traditional police training methods are inefficient for modern adult learners and new methods and techniques need to be utilized to ensure that today’s police force remains highly trained, professional and effective. The theory behind my thesis statement is that police officers are starting their law enforcement careers later in life (Mineard, 2006), are more diverse, have higher education and more life experiences. In the past, police officers were minimally trained, entered their careers at …show more content…

In addition to the change in the makeup of the modern police officer with the entrance of officers from generation X and generation Y, starting on September 11, 2001, the demands of the modern police force has changed. In the past, police officers only needed to concern themselves with the crimes and criminals in their local area. Now police officers must also be aware of and trained to deal with external threats, such as terrorism, that can come from anywhere in the world and impact even the smallest communities.
A Brief History of Police Training Formalized police training was not recorded until the late nineteenth century, when the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, first established hiring and training standards. In 1912, the Cincinnati Police Department began requiring its officers to train in the fashion of the military and mandated weekly “drills”. Cincinnati was the first law enforcement organization to recognize the need for formalized and mandatory physical training as well, and built the first gymnasium for its officers, requiring them to train weekly in boxing, wrestling and running (Mersch, 2007, p.7). The Cincinnati Police Department developed the School of Instruction, which was the precursor to the modern day police academy and graduated the first class in April, 1927 (Mersch, 2007,