Public Administration Training in Basic Police Academies: A 50-State Comparative Analysis

• Published date: 01 July 2021
• Author: Galia Cohen
• DOI: 10.1177/0275074021999872
• Date: 01 July 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074021999872

American Review of Public Administration

2021, Vol. 51(5) 345 –359

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0275074021999872

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Article

The importance of public employees training has long been

recognized. As Nanekar (1973) explains, whether it is “rail-

way administration, police administration, social service

administration . . . in all these functions, one factor—admin-

istration—is common “ (p. 56), and, regardless of the func-

tion administrators may be trained, they must be trained in

how to administer it. The rationale behind the need for pub-

lic administration training is simple; communities want to

build a workforce of qualified and competent public ser-

vants who possess the critical knowledge, skills, and atti-

tudes they need to perform their job effectively and deliver

quality public service.

Public administration training as a key approach for train-

ing government employees received a symbolic meaning

when President Carter excluded business major interns from

his Presidential Management Intern Program (McCurdy,

1978). Today, professional fields across the public sector

incorporate public administration content in their training to

teach their employees attitudes and awareness of public ser-

vice principles, such as ethical decision making, social

equity, racial relations, impartiality, and cultural diversity.

While such values and skills are important for all public

employees, as well as for humanity as a whole (Averch &

Dluhy, 1992); they are especially critical for police profes-

sionals as they face some of the most serious challenges and

criticisms of today.

The idea that police officers “make policy” is not new.

Standing on the frontlines of public-sector personnel (Lipsky,

2010), scholars have portrayed police officers as “street-

level bureaucrats” (SLBs; Lipsky, 1971), “boundary-span-

ners personnel” (Aldrich & Reiss, 1972), and even

“soldier-bureaucrats” (Makin, 2016) who, perhaps more than

any other group of SLBs, are entrusted with high levels of

discretionary powers which they are often forced to exercise

within split seconds and under a great deal of pressure

(Cohen, 2018). Clearly, police officers’ ability to execute

their discretionary powers and make ethical and effective

decisions has a significant impact on the delivery of public

999872ARPXXX10.1177/0275074021999872The American Review of Public AdministrationCohen

research-article2021

1Tarleton State University, Fort Worth, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

Galia Cohen, Tarleton State University, 10850 Texan Rider Dr., Fort

Worth, TX 76036, USA.

Email: cohen@tarleton.edu

Public Administration Training

in Basic Police Academies:

A 50-State Comparative Analysis

Galia Cohen1

Abstract

Recent controversial interactions of police with the public have become an issue of important concern for public and

governmental leaders, who have openly questioned current models of police training and their effectiveness. This study is

asking whether basic police academies utilize curricula that reflect the contemporary challenges of modern policing today and

prepare recruits to become not only police officers but also competent and skilled, street-level bureaucrats who can provide

an effective and impartial service to their increasingly diverse communities. The aim of this study is to quantify, analyze, and

compare the content dedicated to the public administration domain in state-mandated basic training curricula across all 50

states. The study utilizes a mixed-methods research design with content analysis. Data were generated from 49 basic training

curricula (with one state not having mandated training standards) and 17 interviews with police training officials. The result

shows that despite the paradigm shift in the role of the modern-day police officer, police academies have made little to no

progress in bridging the gap between the academy curriculum and the practicality of police work. On average, only 3.21% of

basic training curricula are explicitly dedicated to public administration training—a training focused on public service values

of fundamental importance to the practice of law enforcement. This article gives public administration scholars a voice in the

national debate about the crisis in police–public relations by contributing to the literature on police training reform from a

much-needed public administration lens.

Keywords

police reform, police training, public administration training, basic police academy, curricula, content analysis, public value