Executive Summary of the THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES ON THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND PROFESSIONALISM OF TEXAS PEACE OFFICERS
This study was developed because of a need to understand the career development activities and their impact on Texas peace officers. The study described the levels of human resource development activities of the 36 largest law enforcement agencies in Texas representing 21,065+ peace officers, 45 percent of all Texas peace officers. In addition, 23 hypotheses were tested which assessed the impact of human resource development activities on the careers of officers.
The data was collected from a random survey of officers in the selected departments. Of the six hundred fifty-eight surveys were distributed, 69.3 per cent were returned and usable. The sample was slightly divergent in terms of gender from all Texas peace officers with 17.2 percent being female as opposed to 12.2 percent for all Texas peace officers. There also was a slightly higher representation of minorities with 18.7 percent being minority as opposed to the 13.2 percent for all Texas peace officers. Both of these are indications of the urban nature of the sample.
The sample also had slightly fewer officers under age 25 and over age 50 than all Texas peace officers. Also, 82.1 percent of the sample have only worked for one department compared to the statewide rate of 69.9 percent. There were only 17.8 percent of the sample with less than five years experience which is different from the statewide rate of 31.2 percent. These are tendencies to be expected with predominantly urban departments that are under civil service systems that promotes stability, restrictions on the ability to make lateral transfers between agencies, and 20 year retirements.
The "typical officer" as derived from looking at the background data is an anglo male 38 years old with 12 years of experience. and who attended a basic training course of 571 hours at a local academy. He has 74 hours of college with a grade point average over 3.0 most of which was obtained pre-service, more than six years ago. He has received one promotion with 3.44 years of supervisory experience He has around 400 hours of inservice training and an advanced certificate. His beginning salary was $1388, and his current salary is $2706. He receives an another 10% for departmental overtime, plus an additional 10% for off-duty overtime, for a total income of more than $3000 per month.
Over one-half of the officers were criminal justice majors. Around one-third of the officers' course work was in criminal justice with only 6.8 percent currently attending college. Only 29.3 percent had prior criminal justice experience. One-third have worked in criminal investigations, and one-quarter have worked in detention while 88.3 percent have worked in patrol. Ninety-one percent work in a civil service department with 96.1 percent hired by written exam and 98 percent work in departments with written promotional testing. Sixty-three percent of the officers work in departments with college incentive pay and 59.9 percent work in departments with TCLEOSE certification pay. Thirty-four percent of the officers work for departments that have some college entry requirement. Seventy-seven percent of the sample works in municipal departments and ninety-one percent work in departments with over 200 staff members.
The following hypotheses were tested during this project.
1. Peace officers who have more hours of college will score higher on professionalism inventories.
2. Peace officers who have more hours of college will be promoted more frequently.
3. Peace officers who have more hours of college will have higher rank.
4. Peace officers who have more hours of college will have more years of experience in a supervisory capacity.
5. Peace officers with a higher grade point average will receive more promotions.
6. Peace officers with a higher grade point average will have a higher rank.
7. Peace officers with a higher grade point average will have a higher current salary.
8. Peace officers with a higher grade point average will have had a greater gain in their salary.
9. Peace officers with a higher grade point average will have more years of specialized experience.
10. Peace officers who have more hours of college will be more likely to have worked in a specialized career assignment.
11. Peace officers who have more hours of college will make higher salaries
12. Peace officers who have more hours of college will have made greater gains in their salary from the beginning of their career.
13. Peace officers who have more hours of inservice training will have a higher score on professionalism inventories.
14. Peace officers who have more hours of inservice training have received more promotions.
15. Peace officers who have more hours of inservice training will have a higher rank.
16. Peace officers who have more training will have more years of experience in a supervisory capacity.
17. Peace officers who have more hours of inservice training will have more specialized career assignments.
18. Peace officers who have more hours of inservice training make a higher salary.
19. Peace officers who have more hours of inservice training have made greater gains in their salary from the beginning of their career.
20. Peace officers who have more hours of college will have received more hours of inservice training.
21. Peace officers who work for a department with an educational incentive plan will have more hours of college.
22. Peace officers who work for a department with a TCLEOSE Certification incentive plan will have more hours of college.
23. Peace officers who work for a department with a TCLEOSE Certification incentive plan will have more hours of training.
Table 1 shows that fifteen of the 23 hypotheses were statistically significant.
Table
Hypotheses Test Results
Acceptance of
Hypothesis Hypothesis Significance
1. College on Professionalism No .447(NS)* 2. College on Promotions Yes .000 3. College on Rank Yes .000 4. College on Supervisory Exper. Yes .001 5. G.P.A. on Promotions Yes .013 6. G.P.A. on Rank Yes .002 7. G.P.A. on Salary Yes .020 8. G.P.A. on Salary Gain Yes .030 9. G.P.A. on Specialization No .314(NS) 10. College on Specialization Yes .036 11. College on Salaries Yes .000 12. College Salary Gain Yes .000 13. Inservice on Professionalism No .285(NS)* 14. Inservice on Promotions No .140(NS) 15. Inservice on Rank Yes .002 16. Inservice on Supervisory Exper. Yes .000 17. Inservice on Specialization No .537(NS) 18. Inservice on Salary Yes .037 19. Inservice on Salary Gain No .063(NS) 20. College on Inservice No .256(NS) 21. Incentive Pay on College No .341(NS) 22. Certification Pay on College No .001** 23. Certification Pay on Training Yes .000
*Mean Significance Level of Professionalism Constructs
**Significant, but opposite direction of hypothesis
2. Further research is needed using cost-benefit analysis to assess the impact of human resource development activities.
3. As policy changes are made in human resources practices research is needed to assess their impact.
4. An effective instrument to assess the professionalism of members of an occupational group, especially peace officers should be developed.
5. Studies between different occupations and professions should be undertaken to compare the professionalism of law enforcement to other professions.
6. Future research should focus on more effective methods for doing needs assessments and follow up evaluation of any training designed to meet those needs.
7. Future research should examine the impacts upon officers in smaller agencies to see if these findings are replicated in those settings.
8. Future research should develop multivariate models for assessing the impact of human resource development activities upon peace officers.
1. A definite amount of college education should be required for entry into the profession. The standard should be a bachelor's degree. The effective date for a Statewide mandate should be the year 2004. In the transition the following logical interim standards should be set to facilitate the smooth transition to the new standard. The following three step process should be adopted by State statute or TCLEOSE Rule:
Effective January 1, 1995, the minimum standard should be 60 hours of college.
Effective January 1, 1999, the minimum standard should be 90 hours of college.
Effective January 1, 2004, the minimum standard should be a bachelor's degree.
Departments should be encouraged to set higher standards or move to the bachelor's standard faster if local conditions permit. Currently licensed personnel should be able to retain their license throughout their careers.
Fears about adverse impact appear to have little foundation. Minorities in the sample and in law enforcement have comparable levels of college with the exception of Hispanics. College standards would have less adverse impact than the current system of written entry testing. The following recommendation should make college more accessible for people wanting to enter the profession or be promoted within the profession.
2. The State of Texas should create a program similar to the Law Enforcement Education Program (LEEP) which the federal government used in the 1970s with such great impact on the educational levels of law enforcement. The Texas legislature passed such a bill in 1989, but was vetoed by the governor. This plan must be available for incumbent officers, as well as, pre-service individuals.
It is interesting that younger and less experienced officers are less likely to have a college degree. The data shows that officers under 30 are less likely to be college graduates, and that officers with less than ten years of experience are less likely to have a college degree. Officers with 15 to 19 years of experience were most likely to have a college degree. This is probably the result of the demise of the Law Enforcement Assistance Agency (LEAA), and their Law Enforcement Education Program. Under Federal leadership in the 1970s, there was intense interest and encouragement for officers to go to college. LEEP funds were often combined by officers with the GI Bill for those coming out of the Vietnam War to finance educational pursuits. In 1974, there were 88 colleges in Texas that offered a criminal justice or law enforcement program, the number now is approximately 45.
Unless current inservice participation in college programs increases or hiring standards concerning college minimums increases, we could be facing a less educated officer corps in the future as retirements affect the officer work force. The 21st century calls for a more educated officer; not a less educated officer.
3. Law enforcement needs to adopt the model for its human resource activities from the professions rather than the trades. This means using qualitative studies for job analysis and validation of job requirements and educational and training needs. The legal, medical, nursing, and teaching professions do not set their standards based upon what was acceptable in the past. Law enforcement has stagnated on the high school requirement since the 1960s and before. Our society and the nature of the job are evolving over time.
If medicine had kept it's 1910 standard, a doctor today would not have to be a high school graduate. We cannot accept standard setting that always uses the rear view mirror. The nursing profession has moved away from the hospital trained registered nurse to a development program centered in the community colleges and universities. One can be a licensed registered nurse at the associate degree level or the bachelor degree level. A distinction for career advancement is made, in terms of promotional ability on a local basis, considering the local applicant pool.
4. The dualistic nature of human resource development activities in law enforcement should be reduced through more cooperation between colleges and law enforcement training academies. Contractual agreements between academies and colleges should be encouraged immediately, and, perhaps, required by the year 2000. College education needs to become more practical and training academies need to become developmentally based.
The gap is not that great if we are willing to learn from each other. The Minnesota Model should be explored as a possibility for Texas. Another model to look at is the nursing model that has different levels of nursing: licensed vocational nurse, two-year degree R.N., and baccalaureate R.N.
J.R. Kidd has been quoted by Stephen Matthews as stating, "Theory without practice is empty, and practice without theory is blind." Matthews goes on to paraphrase this statement, "Education without training is empty; training without education is blind."
Professional development depends upon a cooperative system that balances the practical and the theoretical parts of learning into a congruent package. Institutions of higher education should update their curriculum to make it more consistent with the evolving needs of policing. There should be more on-going dialogue between universities and law enforcement.
5. The full-time instructional staff at police academies should be required to be college graduates. Instructors should be models for other officers to emulate.
6. TCLEOSE should amend its rule concerning the requirement of 40 hours inservice every two years to include college attendance as one way to meet the standard. This would encourage college attendance.
7. If the change recommended in number is approved, TCLEOSE should amend its mandatory continuing education rule to require 40 hours per year. This requirement should be placed upon the individual officer, as well as the department, and should be based upon some type of localized and individualized needs assessment.
8. TCLEOSE should develop more career specific curriculum to match career specializations. These courses should also be adopted or incorporated into the higher education curriculum. TCLEOSE should encourage colleges to adopt and incorporate relevant job related curriculum into their course offerings. This will encourage participation in the higher education system and will encourage and broaden educational attainment into training courses.
9. TCLEOSE should develop a system of career development and certification that makes a distinction between degreed and non-degreed licensees. This will encourage the participation by incumbents in the higher education system that will speed up the acceptance of law enforcement as a profession. Career path levels should have specific college requirements. The top level should require a college degree with no substitutions for training hours or experience.
10. Agencies should immediately adopt standards for promotion that require the attainment of certain levels of college. The following scheme is recommended, but could be modified as local conditions warrant.
11. Sergeants should be required to have 60 hours. Since the median level of college hours currently is 74 hours and the number of incumbents at the sergeant or higher level is 29.8 percent, we should have sufficient applicants for promotion.
12. Lieutenants and above should be required to have a bachelor's degree. This has been and is the current requirement for the U.S. military which has been quite successful in attracting and promoting minorities while improving their profession. Since 30 percent of the sample has a bachelor's degree, and 9.9 percent of them are the lieutenant or higher rank, we should have sufficient applicants for promotion. Once such standards are set, we will see large increases in participation in college programs.
13. Civil service laws should be altered to allow for hiring and promotion based upon a combination of experience, educational attainments, written tests, performance, interviews, and assessment centers, rather than written tests only. This allows for a better assessment of a person's knowledge, skills, and abilities than using only a written test with rank ordering of the results. It also is more inclusive in allowing minorities to go through a preparation and development process for advancement. The grade point averages (G.P.A.) of those attending college was relatively high with 56.8 percent reporting a 3.0 G.P.A. or better. This could be attributed to selection based upon written exams since 96.1 percent were selected through written examination. This would indicate a close relationship between selection tests and college. It suggests that college selection requirements could be used in place of written examinations.
14. Civil service laws should be altered to allow for lateral transfers between agencies without having to start all over at a different rank. Mobility and transferability of knowledge, abilities, and skills are one of the hallmarks of a professional. Currently officers are virtually trapped into continuing to work in situations with which they may not be happy. They lose retirement, seniority, and rank when they switch agencies. These changes could be caused by a spouse being transferred, family problems, conflicts with supervisors or co-workers, or desire to relocate for other personal reasons. Just as free agency has come to the sports arena, the law should allow for flexible career choices for peace officers.
15. Departments should increase their college incentive pay to the 1973 recommendations of the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals of 10 percent of salary.
In 2025, formal education will become the standard for entry and advancement in more than 70 percent of all police agencies.
In 2050, law enforcement will achieve professional status.
The year 2050 seems outrageously far off into the future to wait for professionalism to come to the field. It is the date, in which it is predicted that we will be able to medically treat violence-proneness with bio-chemical and genetic means. We must move beyond stagnation and the status quo. It is time to take bigger steps. Law enforcement needs to make decisions and adjust its course if it is to move closer to attaining professional status. It will only come after taking bold actions that involve a certain amount of risk taking. Law enforcement leaders and political leaders should assert the needed developments for the profession to move forward into the Third Millennium.