Are College-Educated Police Officers Different? A Study of Stops, Searches, and Arrests

• Author: Richard Rosenfeld,Thaddeus L. Johnson,Richard Wright
• Published date: 01 March 2020
• Date: 01 March 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0887403418817808
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403418817808

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2020, Vol. 31(2) 206 –236

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0887403418817808

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Article

Are College-Educated Police

Officers Different? A Study of

Stops, Searches, and Arrests

Richard Rosenfeld1, Thaddeus L. Johnson2,

and Richard Wright2

Abstract

A study of more than 60,000 police traffic stops found that college-educated

officers were more likely than other officers to stop drivers for less serious

violations, perform consent searches, and make arrests on discretionary grounds.

These results are consistent with those of prior research indicating that college-

educated officers are more achievement-oriented and eager for advancement

based on the traditional performance criteria of stops, searches, and arrests. The

results raise questions regarding the recommendation of the President’s Task

Force on 21st Century Policing to improve police-community relations by hiring

more college-educated police officers, especially in urban communities where

concerns about over-policing are widespread. If community engagement were

to become a primary basis for professional advancement, however, the current

results suggest that college-educated officers may adapt to the new standards as

diligently as they have to the traditional criteria for reward and promotion in U.S.

police departments.

Keywords

policing, college-educated officers, arrests, searches

In the wake of controversial and widely publicized incidents involving the use of

deadly force by the police against racial and ethnic minorities, President Obama

appointed the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing to examine current

1University of Missouri–St. Louis, MO, USA

2Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Richard Rosenfeld, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, University of Missouri–St. Louis,

One University Boulevard, 324 Lucas Hall, St. Louis, MO 63121-4499, USA.

Email: richard_rosenfeld@umsl.edu

817808CJPXXX10.1177/0887403418817808Criminal Justice Policy ReviewRosenfeld et al.

research-article2018

Rosenfeld et al. 207

law enforcement policies and offer recommendations to improve policing in the

United States. A prominent theme running throughout the Task Force’s final report

is that reforms should be adopted to make policing more just, impartial, unbiased,

and sensitive to the needs of diverse communities. As one of the recommendations

to achieve this objective, the Task Force recommended that “the Federal Government,

as well as state and local agencies, should encourage and incentivize higher educa-

tion for law enforcement officers” (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing,

2015, recommendation 5.11). Toward this end, the Task Force called for innovative

recruitment approaches to develop “a more highly educated workforce with the

character traits and social skills that enable effective policing and positive commu-

nity relationships” (p. 51).1

The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing was not the first Presidential

panel to advocate higher education as a means of improving the quality and effective-

ness of policing. The President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the

Administration of Justice (1967), appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965,

was tasked with recommending strategies for addressing rising crime rates amid a

period of civil unrest in cities across the United States. Among the 1967 Commission’s

many recommendations was that educational standards for those charged with enforc-

ing the law should be raised, with a strong emphasis on recruiting more college-

educated officers. Underpinning this recommendation was the optimistic assumption

that a college education would make police officers more sensitive and responsive to

the distinctive needs and challenges of the communities they serve (Fogelson, 1977).

There was little empirical support for this assumption (Carter, Sapp, & Stephens,

1989). However, it was anchored in a long-standing call for better-educated police

officers that predate the Johnson Commission recommendation by more than 50

years, stretching back to August Vollmer (Brunson & Wright, 2016; Oliver, 2017).

That undoubtedly added to its political credibility.

In response to the 1967 Commission’s report, Congress established the Law

Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA). Through LEAA’s Law Enforcement

Education Program (LEEP), the Federal government authorized loans and scholar-

ships to encourage police officers to pursue higher education. Although LEEP’s fund-

ing only lasted a few years, these financial incentives, coupled with an unprecedented

expansion in higher education, clearly had the desired effect. In 1960, only 3% of

police officers held a bachelor’s degree. By 1974, just 7 years after the publication of

the Commission’s report, that figure had grown to 9% (National Planning Association,

1978). The percentage of college-degreed officers rose steadily over the next several

decades, standing at just under a quarter in 1990 (Carter & Sapp, 1990) and approxi-

mately a third in 2010 (Reaves, 2015). The boom in the number police officers with a

college education, however, appears to be driven mostly by the upward trend in edu-

cational attainment in the general population, rather than agency policy (Baro &

Burlingame, 1999; Hawley, 1998).

Despite substantial and sustained growth in the number of police officers with a

college degree, little is known about the way they do their jobs, especially in their day-

to-day interactions with community residents. Does having a college degree make