In order to become a police officer must understand and align with the attitudes and values of the profession, have the necessary training and education, and also understand the duties to be performed.
Police officers use their own language for referencing various laws or aspects of police business. This can include short terms for the perpetrators of a crime, various administrative or regulatory requirements and other ways in which police business is categorized.
Police officers are expected to have certain behaviors and lifestyles, such as being honest and law abiding. As a whole the profession focuses on the need to serve and protect the public from crime. The core value of honesty and fairness helps to support this, as police have power which could otherwise be abused. For this reason aggressive individuals do not make good police officers, and police recruits ideally have a guardian mind-set (Lantigua-Williams, 2016).
Police officers are expected to be high school graduates, and many also have a related certificate, diploma or degree in a related discipline such as security or sociology. In order to advance in the profession a post-secondary education is useful.
Tools and equipment which are required for the job include the reports that must be completed and other forms of administration and defense tools for use in the field. These can include items such as firearms, which have specialized training and licensing requirements.
For the police officer the workplace involves two areas, the area where police administration occurs, and in the field. There are therefore two kinds of interactions, the first with other police officers and related professionals, and the second with the public in the context of police business.
Police officers are held to a high standard, and the needs of the profession go beyond what can be learned through training, such as the language and processes. Police officers must be law abiding individuals with sincere concern for their fellow citizens and communities.
- Lantigua-Williams, J. (2016). How Much Can Better Training Do to Improve Policing? The Atlantic. Retrieved from: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/police-training/490556/
