Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

4. Education
19. A number of individuals within the TPS expressed the view that the best officer
candidates are those who have completed post-secondary education. Research in the
field demonstrates that a candidate with a higher level of education is likely, in many
respects, to be better prepared to carry out the duties of a police officer, including
interacting with people in crisis.
20. Contemporary policing, especially in large cities, is “a demanding balancing act in
a highly diverse and complex world, one in which officers must have a grasp of social
forces, ethics”and the intricacies of applicable legislation. 11 Many researchers have
found that university education results in an improved appreciation of the ethical issues
inherent to policing and the social and legal complexities involved. 12 Overall, higher
education results in a “more professional, less dogmatic approach to police work.” 13
21. Several studies have found that higher education “significantly reduced the
likelihood of [the use of] force occurring.” 14 One study found that, with respect to one
U.S. police service, university-educated police officers are statistically more likely to
make “psychiatric referrals” than their less educated colleagues. Conversely, those with
lower levels of education were more likely to make an arrest. 15
22. This greater degree of understanding has positive effects for the police. For
example, several studies have indicated that when police officers are less authoritarian
as a product of greater sensitivity, knowledge and understanding, the result is that
police services receive fewer complaints regarding police conduct. 16
23. Furthermore, it may be useful to actively recruit graduates from specific
educational programs that teach skills desirable to providing a compassionate response
to people in crisis, such as nursing or social work. It should not be a requirement that all
police officers have this education, but a greater emphasis on hiring more officers with
these and similar educational backgrounds may assist in shifting the culture of the
Service as a whole to provide a greater emphasis on treating people in crisis with
compassion.
11
Teresa C. LaGrange, “The Role of Police Education in Handling Cases of Mental Disorder” (2003) 28:1 Criminal Justice Review
88 at 91 [LaGrange, “Police Education”], cited in Terry G. Coleman & Dorothy Cotton, Police Interactions with Persons with a
Mental Illness: Police Learning in the Environment of Contemporary Policing (Ottawa: Mental Health Commission of Canada,
2010) at 59 [Coleman & Cotton, Police Learning].
12
For relevant literature see note 71 of Coleman & Cotton, Police Learning, id. at 59.
13
LaGrange, “Police Education”, supra note 11 at 88, cited in Coleman & Cotton, Police Learning, supra note 11 at 60.
14
Jason Rydberg & William Terrill, “The Effect of Higher Education on Police Behavior” (2010) 13:1 Police Quarterly 92 at 92;
Michael G. Aamodt, Research in Law Enforcement Selection (Boca Raton, FL: BrownWalker Press, 2004); James P. McElvain &
Augustine J. Kposowa, “Police Officer Characteristics and the Likelihood of Using Deadly Force” (2008) 35:4 Criminal Justice and
Behavior 505; William Terrill & Stephen D. Mastrofski, “Situational and Officer-based Determinants of Police Coercion” (2002)
19:2 Justice Quarterly 215. All sources cited in LaGrange, “Police Education”, supra note 11, cited in Coleman & Cotton, Police
Learning, supra note 11 at 60.
15
LaGrange, “Police Education”, supra note 11 at 106, cited in Coleman & Cotton, Police Learning, supra note 11 at 60.
16
LaGrange, “Police Education”, supra note 11 at 88, cited in Coleman & Cotton, Police Learning, supra note 11 at 60.
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