Police Training and Education: missed opportunities; future possibilities

This chapter reflects upon the relationship between the higher education sector and police services in England and Wales over recent years and considers ways in which the emergence of the College of Policing presents new opportunities for furthering the academic status of the learning that occurs within police training contexts. The chapter draws upon the lessons gained from Canterbury Christ Church University’s (CCCU) direct experiences of working with the police over the past 17 years in designing, developing and delivering bespoke academic programmes for serving police officers, initial police recruits and prospective police officers. Our starting point is an assumption that higher education (HE) has a positive role to play in helping to develop police training and we concentrate our attention on trying to explain why there is resistance to establishing academic levels of attainment for the learning that takes place within police training and education contexts. We present a number of recommendations regarding ways in which the College of Policing can help overcome such resistance in its efforts to professionalise and modernise policing. Importantly, we recognise the need for a period of transition; there are arguments to be won within all levels of policing and especially with the large number of officers who are, in our view, too often excluded from debates about the role HE can play within policing. We refer to this group of officers as the ‘excluded middle’, as will be explained below. We have adopted a ten year approach, akin to the approach taken within the Patten Report (1999), to allow for a gradual, but meaningful change in the way the police services in England and Wales view knowledge and its role within contemporary policing.