What do you guys think of this?

[Aten1998]

What do you guys think of “The legislation from Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, would require new peace officers to either have a bachelors degree or be at least 25 years old” and do you think there is a chance this actually happens?

source: https://abc7.com/amp/police-officers...a-cop/8649059/

[Iowa #1603]

What do you guys think of “The legislation from Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, would require new peace officers to either have a bachelors degree or be at least 25 years old” and do you think there is a chance this actually happens?

source: https://abc7.com/amp/police-officers...a-cop/8649059/

Didn't read the article

No chance in hell of it passing

.After interviewing and later training & supervising HUNDREDS of new staff.................PERSONALLY I believe that 25 is a rock bottom age for becoming a law enforcement officer

[scotty_appleton814]

I agree with that assessment

[GoldBadge]

Never happen! The dude is just a dumb ***!

[just joe]

My first chief said that if he had his way, he wouldn't hire anyone who wasn't at least 26 years of age. Knowing what we now know about about human brain development, it probably isn't a bad idea. It can work, but it is something that needs to be phased in over time in successive steps rather than be mandated all at once.

[tanksoldier]

That would be best practice, but a state mandate is foolish.

[COMoparfan392]

Isn’t this a common practice for a large portion of agencies anyways? Seems to be an unspoken preference and rightfully so.

[Aidokea]

Lol, good luck with that- the talent pool is already very shallow to start with...

[LA Copper]

25 isn't a bad age to start, especially with the newest generation of youngsters who aren't yet the most social or mature at 21 / 22 years old.

However, the Bachelor's Degree is not a good idea. Not everyone can afford to go to college and obtain an Associate's Degree let alone a Bachelor's. That alone could leave out a lot of potentially good people. It's nice to have but it shouldn't be mandatory.

[CCCSD]

What if it’s 25 and a BS for White males, 21 and a HS diploma for everyone else? Wouldn’t that ensure equality?

[Ratatatat]

The dirty and violent big city I worked in required three things:

-18 years of age
-High school diploma
-Ability to fog a mirror with own breath

Academy classes are full of kids who can't buy a sixer of Pabst but will have full authority to make arrests.

AND even with the low bar standards, they still can't get enough applicants. That's what happens for a job that tops out at $55K, doesn't pay into social security, and has a crap pension.

What they do seem to attract are suburban 19 year old males with muscles and an attitude, the fake tough guys looking for a thrill...

[Aidokea]

My biggest hiring concern, for many years, has been the lowering of hiring standards in order to meet certain "diversity goals".

Hiring people for any reason other than their ability to do the job, is a very bad idea.

[Aidokea]

To put it another way, passing over qualified applicants just because they are white, male, Christian, heterosexual, and/or married to the mother of their children, is bigotry that worsens the agency.

[Iowa #1603]

The dirty and violent big city I worked in required three things:

-18 years of age
-High school diploma
-Ability to fog a mirror with own breath

The prison I worked at uses those exact qualifications.

And actively stresses the last more than the others.........................it doesn't work out well.

[Johnny5678]

Would it solve anything? I read a different article on the same topic so excuse my ignorance if that one has some science to back it up? I ask in that, while I know maturity takes into the mid-20s, is there a problem with younger officers using excessive force?

The big protests from this summer, especially with George Floyd's death, were sparked by a 15-20 year (?) veteran of a police department. Would a college degree have changed that?

The purpose of the academy is to gauge maturity by exposing recruits to high stress situations. If an immature recruit is able to make it through, I think that reflects less on hiring, than on the checks/balances of the academy- just get as many bodies through, rather than good and qualified recruits. I'm sure we have all heard of horror stories where some recruit gets through (maybe one in our class) who shouldn't get through. There was one in my class who got through even though we all knew he was a screw up and while on FTO he screwed up big time and froze up during a fight and subsequently got fired.

Is a young man or woman who is 23 and just did 5 years in the military somehow less mature than a college grad or a 25 year old? What about the 22 year old who has been working since 18 and living independently and just never went to college?

While I get what the legislation is trying to do, I wonder if it's not addressing the actual problem and just trying to find a problem for the solution.

[BNWS]

Its funny when I took the PD exam the maximum age to be hired was 28.no college needed. There were exemptions for guys who were in the military. It was considered a labor job then and youth and strength were considered an asset. Like the height requirement, things change.

[Aidokea]

...while I know maturity takes into the mid-20s, is there a problem with younger officers using excessive force?

I don't care about that, as much as I care about the youngsters bringing the patrol cars back with square wheels, bumper covers flapping, exhaust systems bent, tobacco spit bottles left in the console, fast-food wrappers under the seat, and a well-established farm of cockroaches.