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It shouldn’t require a college degree. They should have some concrete notion of the requirements and how to test for them.


I’m not aware of any European country that requires police officers to have a degree but they all have much longer training periods than is normal in the US. If I recall correctly in both Germany and Ireland at least take three years before you’re basically tenured and can only be fired for gross misconduct.


Sweden doesn't require a degree, but training is 3 years and a 'degree' from the a police school is considered equivalent to a bachelors degree. All the academic courses (law, sociology, criminology etc.) you take give 'real' academic credits that you can transfer if you for example want to apply to study for a different academic degree later.


Same in Finland. All police officers go to the Police University College, which counts as a University of Applied Sciences, just like engineering schools.


Same in Norway. I suspect the remaining Nordic state is similar.


Lithuania requires two-year academy for beat cops and 4-year bachelor's (specific programme, with law and social studies as basis) for detectives and such. I think (but not certain) special investigation units require master's in law as well.


What’s a “special investigation unit?”


Something like FBI in US, people who investigate government corruption, organized crime, national security threats, etc.


Czech Republic does require a degree since early 2000s. Back then I had a few classmates who were cops and went to college to satisfy the new requirement.


The UK has an apprenticeship scheme where police officers gain a degree whilst learning to do the job.


I support this.




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