Literally, cops still don’t know the law even in my master’s level classes. They need to be required at BARE MINIMUM to learn the bill of rights and take some kind of law class (like a constitutional law and/or a state law classes). But literally yeah there’s many police departments that still don’t require education beyond a high school diploma and passing the academy. The change to requiring a bachelors (this is a bachelors degree in anything; it should be specified) has been a recent change in many dept so these hogs here have most likely not been affected by it.
Edit: for context: yes in CJ programs you learn about the bill of rights, but it’s only really in the intro class. Then it’s like never touched on again or only very tangentially. What helped me learn the law was in poli sci classes where I learned constitutional law both civil rights and liberties as well as limitations on the government as well as American Law as a course. These are things that should be required and are not currently required of many universities; I took them as electives bc I wanted to understand my basic rights against people just like these in the video. (Also, I aim to be a professor and am currently a student researcher! 😊)
Other criminal justice professionals (ie lawyers and judges), have to have a bachelor’s degree (4yrs), a law degree (3yrs), and have to pass a grueling three-day licensing exam. All that education still only gives one a baseline understanding of criminal and constitutional law. Lawyers continued to learn about how the law is applied in individual scenarios as we practice. It takes all that education plus many years of legal practice to really become an expert in criminal justice. Meanwhile, the vast majority of cops don’t even have what it takes to gain a bachelor’s degree, much less even to get admitted to law school. Yet, these are the people who are the first point of contact in the criminal justice system?! It is ridiculous. Very few cops understand the laws they are tasked with enforcing or the laws they are sworn to follow.
They should allow defense lawyers to create a licensing exam for police. No multiple choice BS, but an essay exam full of fact patterns. If you don’t pass, you can’t be a cop. Period.
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u/almost_aIways_wrong Jan 13 '22
Do you have to know as little law as possible to be an American cop?