Education requirements a tough equation

The City and County police forces differ in standards for cops. For example, the Albemarle police force has more stringent academic requirements, while the City has stricter physical fitness standards. But the philosophies behind the standards are more complex than mere brains versus brawn. According to City Police Chief Timothy J. Longo, education requirements for police forces can affect diversity.
    The County requires that applicants have 15 credit hours of college coursework. Albemarle Police Lieutenant John Teixeira says, “Going to college opens you up to thinking more critically, to looking at things in an analytical way. That’s what we’re looking for in our police officers.”
    But Longo says higher education standards can limit the applicant pool. “I think it needs to be considered when a police department puts in place requirements that, because of opportunities, it could have an adverse effect on minority groups,” Longo says. “Sometimes you can find the ideal candidate that has the right heart that may not have a degree, so I think there’s a balance.”
    Currently minorities make up 11 percent of the City police force and 8 percent of cops in the County.
    But Teixeira says education requirements don’t have negative effects on diversity. “It’s about getting local groups to say, ‘We want more African-American and Latino cops,’” he says.
    Longo says City education requirements have consisted of a high school diploma for a long time. In the County, “if we could get away with it we would probably require maybe an associates or higher,” Teixeira says.
    Both agree that recruitment is an issue, and both would like to see more diversity within the police force. Both give preference to candidates with college degrees, but they admit, the higher the requirements, the more limited the pool.
    “It’s one thing to say I think that the agency needs to mirror the population that it serves. It’s easy to say that, it’s extremely difficult to accomplish it,” Longo says.
    “Unfortunately, right now, the pool of qualified candidates for police officer, it’s really low,” Teixeira says. “We’re just not getting the quality of candidates.”