The most important criteria of selecting candidates for police training ought to include two main aspects. First is the historical background of the person. The history of a person tells-it-all about the type of person one is, and, therefore, it comes in handy in the selection of the candidates. The second is the education level. It is imperatively obvious that the degree of competence of police officer is directly related to the education level. Police work involves situation where one has to apply knowledge that is not necessarily gained from experience but from general education system.
The quality and quantity of college education is very critical in aspiring police officers. The changing world requires very educated police officers with un-paralleled levels of education both in quality and quantity (National Institute of Justice, n.d). If the police officer have low quality and quantity of education, their ability to handle the different crimes and situations shall be greatly compromised. A police officer must have high levels of integrity (Carl B. Klockars, Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovich, William E. Harver, and Maria R. Haberfeld, 2000). A police officer ought to have no history of corruption, gross misconduct, acknowledging the diversity in culture, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, among others. Without integrity, a police officer cannot perform optimally. In addition, a police officer has to be knowledgeable in the general concepts affecting the society. For optimal performance, a police officer should know the current states of affairs as well as the changing laws, contentions, among others.
Diversity can be ensured by applying due diligence in appointing of police officers in the ranks. It can involve placing the leader and his/her deputy or the immediate upper or lower rank with one from a different category of the minorities, such as gender, race, and ethnicity or enact it in the laws specifying how such selection shall be done. For all fairness, if one fits the selection criteria, the person has the right to be recruited without discrimination. Holding to the “ideal cop” mentality is per se discriminatory.
References
Carl B. Klockars, Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovich, William E. Harver, and Maria R. Haberfeld (2000). National Institute of Justice. Retrieved on November 16, 2014 from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/181465.pdf
National Institute of Justice( n.d). Police Integrity. Retrieved on November 16, 2014 from http://nij.gov/topics/law-enforcement/legitimacy/Pages/integrity.aspx
