Wednesday, September 13, 2006

The Value of Police Foundations and Education in General

There is a variety of opinions and information regarding the importance of Police Foundations - for those that do not know, it is a program offered by community colleges geared towards people looking to pursue a career in law enforcement.

It is important to understand that it is not required by any Canadian police service to date; however, neither is any form of post secondary education.

The minimum requirements are quite low at your standard highschool diploma and First-aid class C.

I feel that Police Foundations is a great program to take - I took it and graduated with honours. It lays the groundwork for policing in several fields including:
  • Diversity issues
  • Community policing and principles
  • The physical aspect of the job
  • Law
  • Police powers of arrest
  • Criminal Code
  • Highway Traffic Act
  • Provincial Offences Act
  • Forensics
  • Evidence, report writing, form writing
  • etc.
Now it is also important to understand that all of this is taught to an individual once they are hired as a police constable, however, while that is taught in a much accelerated pace - fitting the information into the 12 week stay at Alymer, Ontario. The Police Foundations program extends the learning throughout the course of 2 years, 4 semesters.

I definitely recomend the PF program to anyone interested in law enforcement, but I also recomend that the individual takes whatever program they are interested in, not necessarily one because it foreshadows a future career. Police services nowadays are looking for people from a wide range of experiences.

If your intersted in computer sciences, take it! A police service will view you as a huge asset because of your computer literacy and skills, the computer crimes department is right at your footsteps!

This is just one example of how one should play out their education - I am happy I took the program, I learned alot and made some excellent references in the policing field. Take whatever program or life experience you are interested in, the rest will follow suit.

Take care,
Simon

1 comment:

Future Police Officer said...

Simon have posted great information about police foundations programs, I can say this because, I am studying in this program at a community college. As Simon said minimum requirements are quite low but career options are excellent !

That's why I have selected this program.