Chief White Wants Community Oriented Policing, More Officers On Street

Here is a scenario. A young black man comes from a single parent home. He graduates from high scholl and gets a full time job to help his Mom and his younger siblings. His goal in life has always to be a Police Officer. Unfortunately he had to forego college in order to help feed his family. Now he can never get on the Police Department because of this fictcious assumption that 2 years of sitting on your backside in some liberal arts college automatically makes you a better qualified candidate for the Police Department. BS! If you are going to want college educated people then offer incentives to get them to apply, but don't paint everyone with a broad brush and say "you're no good, because the kid with the silver spoon in his mouth that wasted time instead of making a difference is a better person!" The old City government used to give 5 extra preference points if you lived in the geographical boundries of the old City. That, silly as it may seem kept people good people from getting selected over people that lived a block in the county. Face facts, expand your hiring base by eliminating this goofy system. Why are we limiting our chances of hiring good people because of 60 college hours? Give a little something extra for those applying that have it if you absolutely must have it, but don't turn away someone because they don't. Many fine Officers chose to get on the department without a college degree and are doing just fine. Our job requires common sense, good people skills and a fair ammount of physical ability. There is nothing that I do every day that my degree as a fine arts major applies on this job. All it proves is that I was fortunate enough to be able to stay at my parents house while I went to school.

Many departments are requiring the 2 years of college because high schools these days are graduating a bunch of illiterates and people who can't add or subtract.