Being a graduate should not be the key aim of Police recruitment.
Published May 15, 2018
Proposals that all recruits to the Police Force should be graduates have come under fire from the UKIP Home Affairs spokesman, Dave Moreland, himself a former police officer.
"This suggestion from Alex Marshall, the Chief Constable of the Police College is a retrograde step and will do nothing to either improve policing or improve the police's failing relationship with the communities they serve".
"Of course, police officers want to get the recognition for the training and experience they gain whilst working in the force, and specific degree level recognition os a good approach to satisfy, and recognise those achievements. The suggestion of Police Constable degree apprenticeships has its merits, but should not be compulsory.
"It is absurd to suggest that to operate computers or conduct online investigations requires degree level training, as anybody who understands the modern world and young people today would understand.
"My concern is that Graduates will be interested in one thing and one thing only, promotion, rather than the unglamorous but vital vocation that is at the heart of policing and protecting local communities.
"Currently under 40% of officers have degrees, in step with the population at large, but throwing up barriers to entry, which will undoubtedly lead to even greater recruitment problems amongst poorer and more ethnically diverse groups is no way forward. It will likewise impact on the recruitment of former servicemen and women, who bring many of the skills needed for policing with them, but without the unnecessary garland of a degree."
