College in becoming a cop

[crazyc]

I was wondering if you had to get a degree in adminstration of justice or can I get it in whatever I want? I do fine with classes like arrest search and seizure but classes such as concept of criminal law, which seems geared more to lawyers, I dislike. Places I would like to work are Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland or Los Angelos. Any recomendations on schools in California.

Also I hope to one day be apart of either SWAT or a gang and tac unit, any city you would recomend that would fit best for what I want.

Thanks
Carl

p.s. great forum

[corporal716]

Get a degree in anything you want. You will learn to be a cop in the academy and FTO program. When promoting in a department they are looking for managers. People who can balance the budget. You may want to look into business management or public administration. Plus one day you may not be a cop any more. Then what are you going to do with an administration of justice degree?

Do a search, there has been a lot written on this board about education and degrees.

[crazyc]

thank you for the response corporal

carl

[phuzz01]

Also, just so you know, you are going to have to study a lot of criminal and motor vehicle law in the academy, so you better learn to like it. They aren't going to just hire you, give you a submachine gun, throw you into the tactical unit, and point at a building for you to rush into.

[crazyc]

Dont get me wrong I love learning about being a cop. Also please dont think I want to become a cop to blow up stuff and shoot at people.

Thanks
Carl

[Smitty]

give you a submachine gun, throw you into the tactical unit, and point at a building for you to rush into.

The Military will if you just want to blow stuff up and throw alot of lead around.

[Switchback]

...They aren't going to just hire you, give you a submachine gun, throw you into the tactical unit, and point at a building for you to rush into.

What? Why would you say such a horrible thing? You just summed up my resume!
:D


Seriously, you've been given great advice so far. No need for a CJ degree. Study what you like. It'll help you in 2 ways: getting the education requirement out of the way for a pd and giving you a possible back-up to LE.

[ngcsubutterbar]

and what if you like CJ ?

[Switchback]

Well, then you're batting 500. So much for a back-up.
LOL

[oscarmitre]

I know that criminal justice is a popular undergraduate topic but I think it might have been a creation of the Omnibus legislation back in the late 1960s where the policy response to the perception of rising crime was to throw a lot of federal dollars at law enforcement. Not well thought out but well funded.

If were you crazyc I would take the very good advice switch gave you. Follow your interest and have an eye to the future. If you get sick and tired of law enforcement (and it happens) or you get injured and can't work in your chosen area (that happens too), you will have a second career option.

Speaking personally again I have nothing against criminal justice studies (I have a part-time job teaching in the Dept of Justice Studies in an institute which is the Australian version of community college) but I think it's more useful as part of a post-graduate programme than an undergraduate programme.

Historically one of the great things that US higher education gave the world was the notion of breadth in undergraduate studies. In the UK and Australia undergraduate work was (and still is in some places) very narrowly prescribed. I happen to think you Americans got it right in that area, it's better to have a broad education first up, specialise later.

Off the soapbox now :D

[ngcsubutterbar]

yeah but oscar from my understanding a lot of those programs have been stopped as of now.


besides, unlike technical degrees, a bachelor in CJ can lead you to many different career paths.

[Switchback]

... besides, unlike technical degrees, a bachelor in CJ can lead you to many different career paths.

No more than any other degree. IT can help you become a cop, get a job in the security field, or get a job that simply requires a degree of any kind.

Specifically, it actually has very few career paths. Generally speaking, it is as good as any other degree. No less useful than a degree in history, english, etc.

It is certainly fair to say that there are far less options available than a more technical degree.

[oscarmitre]

good point butter - universities will always cut their cloth, if there's federal money (and I'm referring to my own country now) they will do whatever it takes to get the cash.

So if a lot of the cj programmes dried up then that means they didn't get fed funding. It also means that they weren't attracting sufficient students to keep going.

I know it's a circular argument but that indicates that there was an artificial situation going on.

Look for serving officers to get a university degree by studying cj is a good idea, because many will go on to further study perhaps not in cj but if they do go ahead in cj good for them.

And of course all programmes are different. If I were to take one I would look for plenty of electives (I don't know what you would call them but they're subjects totally unrelated to the main stream and serve to give a broader, more liberal education) that gave me options for further study or work.

[crazyc]

Thanks for all the advice