Policing and Higher Education: Where We Are Now by Roy Roberg and Scott Bonn discusses and reviews previous articles and ideas on whether police officers should be required to have a college degree. degree in order to qualify a law enforcement position in the United States. The first person who believed in the idea that police officers should be required to have a college degree to be qualified for a position was August Vollmer. August Vollmer was “the father of American police professionalism” (Walker & Katz, 2011). Vollmer is best known for being an advocate for higher education within law enforcement. However, many high-ranking officers and officials did not believe in the concept of having to obtain a college degree to protect their community. Most police officers in the force did not have a college degree nor did police departments require it to be considered a position. Additionally, many police departments did not require a high school diploma but rather a general equivalency diploma. The first time this idea was used was during the 1960s, when, in the early 1960s, crime increased dramatically and in the late 1960s, ghetto riots took place, opening the eyes of those responsible to the fact that something had to change. , and change quickly to prevent criminal activity and chaos. During the 1970s, the primary focus of law enforcement was now focused on crime prevention and policing programs. Policing programs can be found in nearly every college and school in the United States. In 1968, Congress passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 which provided for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA). The...... middle of paper......g side by side with the community and to do so successfully, you must have an open mind and not allow your beliefs to interfere with the primary objective of the police . In college you learn many things about life and living in a small “community” with many different people that you come to accept by the end of your college experience. One of the weaknesses of the article is the fact that most of the research conducted is outdated and now irrelevant to today's world. The number of people who graduated from high school doubled from 1960 to 2004, and the number of people who graduated from college more than tripled over the same period (Walker & Katz, 2011, p. 126). In conclusion, I think that having a higher education in policing will bring significant benefits when it comes to preventing and addressing crime in such diverse communities throughout the United States..