Police officers have a difficult enough job, putting their lives on the line every shift, even before a relative few in their ranks make the profession more challenging by their reckless treatment of the public.
A police officer’s 2020 suffocation of George Floyd in Minneapolis was a flashpoint. It led to nationwide protests and ridiculous demands to “defund the police.” That idea has thankfully dissipated, given that serious crimes still occur all too frequently, and it is the job of local governments to protect their residents.
But at least one problem lingers: Law enforcement agencies are having trouble recruiting officers. Part of this is due to the extra scrutiny and even hostility aimed at police because of actions like those that killed Floyd. Another element may be relatively low salaries for a relatively high-risk job.
How to improve this situation? Megan McArdle, a columnist for The Washington Post, has a good idea: The country should create a West Point for cops — in other words, a U.S. Military Academy for law enforcement.
“A West Point for cops could serve as a research center for learning what works in policing, and as a place to transmit that information to new generations of officers, who can be attracted to the profession through ... free, high-quality education and opportunities for elite public service,” McArdle wrote.
“As a condition of receiving this education, recruits would promise to serve for eight years — as West Point officers do — on a major urban police force. The federal government could pay their salaries during that time, possibly including hazard pay for more difficult assignments. This would inject more federal money into policing and spread the lessons graduates have learned into police departments across the country.”
It is true that most states already have their own law enforcement training academies. But these generally focus on instruction for new recruits taking entry-level jobs — enlisted men, to put it in Army parlance, who complete their training over a few weeks or months.
A national police academy, assuming it’s designed along the lines of a four-year university, should produce better-trained graduates who will enter the profession at a higher rank, the way West Point graduates do in the Army.
McArdle correctly concedes that a zillion details would have to be worked out. One point worth noting is that small towns, which deal with some nasty crimes of their own, might be third-class bananas to large and mid-sized cities. This clearly would need to be addressed.
But broadly speaking, a national law enforcement academy is an idea worth considering. The need for public safety in cities, small towns and rural areas is not going away. Today’s officers carry much more than a gun: a Taser, a body camera, Narcan for drug overdoses. America needs well trained people for this job.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
