Tech Prep attempts to attract high school students to a career in the criminal justice field.  The goals of Tech Prep programs are two-fold: to prepare students for immediate entry into the workforce or for admission into a vocational type of college program.  For those choosing the college track, many high schools and community colleges have developed articulation agreements by which students can receive college credit for law enforcement and corrections courses taken during high school.  For this program to succeed, those characteristics that will make our Tech Prep students more employable in the field of criminal justice as well as more successful at the college level should be identified and nurtured.

Typically, curricula for Tech Prep programs are developed by doing job task analyses.  Skills needed to successfully perform the job are identified, and programs are designed to teach these skills.  The dilemma facing criminal justice educators is that, unlike other occupational areas, the criminal justice field does not hire individuals based upon demonstrated technical skills, such as firearms proficiency, defensive tactics, first aid, patrol tactics, investigative skills, and mechanics of arrest and control.  In most states the law mandates that new officers successfully complete a competency-based entrance-level police training program where they will learn the technical skills required of the job.  Therefore, Tech Prep programs that stress primarily technical skills will not make the individual more desirable because, again, skill acquisition does not form the basis for selection, especially since law enforcement agencies know these skills will be taught in the police academy.

Consequently, instead of doing job task analyses, Tech Prep programs should focus on those characteristics that agencies look for in prospective employees and which predict success both in the academy and later in the field.  Police managers seek out individuals who have the ability to reason well, spell, write a description or summary of an incident, who are trainable and well disciplined, have the ability to think critically, solve complex problems, demonstrate effective communication skills, and work independently.  In addition to these cognitive traits, character and personality traits are also of concern to administrators.  Helping students to understand and prepare for this hiring/selection process can make the difference between getting the job or sitting on the sidelines.

According to a major study, many applicants for entry-level law enforcement positions do not have the basic reading, writing, or mathematics skills needed to successfully perform police duties.  The study’s findings were based on scores of more than 21,000 individuals who since 1992 have taken the National Police Officer Selection Test (POST), a basic skills test for police and fire services.  Twenty-two percent of the applicants who took the test lacked the basic skills needed to satisfactorily perform their duties.  The study specifically found that 15 percent of the applicants were unable to pass the mathematics portion of the exam, 14 percent could not pass the grammar section, 12 percent did not pass the writing portion, and 9 percent failed reading comprehension (Law Enforcement News, 1997).  This information not only reflects a national trend for police applicants, but also holds true for recent high school graduates attending post-secondary institutions; some states report that approximately 40 percent of entering freshmen are required to take one or more developmental courses in reading and/or writing before they can move on to college-level courses.  If mathematics is included, approximately 70 percent of the entering freshmen must take developmental courses (Maryland Higher Education Commission, 1999).

In recent years, law enforcement officials as well as criminal justice educators have become concerned about the decline in basic skills of persons seeking police jobs.  Experts warn that the lack of literacy skills can have wide-ranging effects on law enforcement (Law Enforcement News, 1997).  To solve this problem it appears that many agencies are looking to hire better-educated candidates.  As far back as 12 years ago, a survey of 699 police agencies found that the average level of educational achievement among police officers was 14 years of schooling, nearly the equivalent of an associate’s degree from a community college.  The report also emphasized the need for educated police officers, citing the following benefits which accrue to police departments from hiring educated officers: (1) better written reports, (2) enhanced communications with the public, (3) more effective job performance, (4) fewer citizens’ complaints, (5) a wiser use of discretion, (6) greater initiative, (7) a heightened sensitivity to racial and ethnic issues, and (8) fewer disciplinary problems (Carter, Sapp, and Stephens, 1989).

To answer the needs of law enforcement agencies, more post-secondary institutions are offering criminal justice programs.  Currently more than 1,200 colleges and universities offer some type of criminal justice or law enforcement degree program (Bennet and Hess, 1996).  Numerous studies have demonstrated that college educated officers are superior, not just because they have good technical skills, but because they possess other desirable traits developed in the higher education process.

In this age of high liability and increasing selectivity, high schools, as well as colleges offering criminal justice programs, should heed this advice and focus their efforts on the more academic and cognitive areas and not attempt to duplicate the curriculum of the training academies.  While the “run and gun” programs might be more enjoyable for students, they do not necessarily prepare the students for future careers, nor do they make them more employable.  As suggested by Doyle and Meadows (1997), the purpose of a criminal justice education is to develop in students the knowledge, judgment, values, and ethical consciousness necessary for becoming responsible citizens and leaders in the criminal justice system.

The goal of the Tech Prep program is to prepare students for entry into the workforce or into college.  Regardless of which direction the student chooses, it is clear that as far as criminal justice students are concerned the characteristics to be successful are identical.  Since there are very few entry level positions in the criminal justice field for 18-year-olds, and the general trend is to employ persons with some college coursework, Tech Prep programs in criminal justice would be wise to focus on academic rather than technical skills to truly prepare these graduates for entry into the criminal justice work force.  These programs would do far better to address their students’ reading, writing, and thinking skills and leave the technical skills to police academy training programs.

                                                                     References

Bennett, W. & Hess, K.  (1996).  Management and supervision in law enforcement.  (2^nd ed.).  Minneapolis/St. Paul: West.

Carter, D., Sapp, A., & Stephens, D.  (1989).  The State of police education: Policy direction for the 21^st century.  Washington, D.C.: Police Executive Research Forum.

Doyle, M. & Meadows, R.  (1997).  A writing-intensive approach to criminal justice education: The California Lutheran university model.  The Justice Professional, 10 (1), 19-30.

Maryland Higher Education Commission (1999).  College Performance Of New Maryland High School Graduates - Student Outcome and Achievement Report.  Annapolis, MD: Maryland Higher Education Commission.

Study says many police applicants lack the write stuff.  (1997, January).  Law Enforcement News. 1, 11.