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Coming to you from hometown America, the Land of the
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Free and the home of the brave, Bedford, Virginia. Welcome
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to cop Talk. I'm Captain Robert Kimbrel. And the Dallas
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Police Department had been shrinking for years. You know, they
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were losing more officers than they hired in competition for recruits.
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Well it's been fierce. Then the hiring woes got even
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worse and more dire in the fall of twenty twenty four,
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when voters passed a proposition that actually required the force
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to have at least four thousand officers, hundreds more that
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it had even you know, had at its peak in
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twenty ten. So the department actually tried a new recruiting strategy,
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and that was to make it easier to hire by
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dropping the requirements that applicants actually have a college you know,
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some college credits under their belt. So Dallas is one
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of the departments that while they didn't you know, require
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a degree, they required college credits. So and Dallas isn't alone.
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It's among several cities to actually relax college education requiring
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hiring requirements for officers, you know, and the years long
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trend that includes Chicago, Memphis, you know, Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky
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and also New Orleans. You know, so all those cities Chicago, Memphis, Louisville,
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and New Orleans, they they've all actually dropped their requirements
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that they had for for degrees or for college credits,
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you know. So you know the changes they they bring
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these cities back in alignment. Actually with much of the nation, Okay,
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more than eighty percent of law enforcement agencies only require
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actually a high school diploma to be hired. And according
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to a twenty seventeen survey of nearly one thousand departments nationwide,
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we know eighty percent only required a high school diplomat
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or a GED. All right, so in a perfect world, well,
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you would want police officers to be college educated, absolutely,
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But this is where policing is now, said Chuck Wexler.
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He's the executive director of the Police Executive Research Form.
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He states, you know, there simply is more demand for officers,
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for qualified police officers than there is supply, and research
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is actually found there are some benefits to stricter standards.
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College educated officers tend to use less force, have fewer complaints,
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and write better reports. And in the week since Dallas
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police made the change, applications have actually begun to roll
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in from people who previously wouldn't have been able to
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become a police officer. But you know, it's important to
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note the recruits must still pass a civil service test,
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a physical exam, of background checks, as well as you know,
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psychological and medical evaluations before they can enter the ten
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month long police academy. So if we come across over
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here to the East coast, the NYPD announced in February
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it would lower its education requirement from sixty college credits
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down to twenty four, and the department said in a
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statement it reached out to thousands of previously ineligible candidates
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in hopes of amassing thirty five thousand officers by the
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fall of twenty twenty six. And then if you go
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all the way back over to the West coast in California,
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after a push to require prospective officers under twenty five
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to get a bachelor's degree, now lawmakers are considering new
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legislation that would require officers have either a bachelor's and
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associates a modern policing degree, or a professional policing certificates,
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and that certificate would actually require at least fifth team credits,
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and all those credits can actually partially be obtained through
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the Police Academy coursework, and the requirements don't apply to
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people with at least four years of military experience or
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law enforcement experience from another state. So you know, the
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question is out there, does college education actually help police officers? Well,
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experts have been calling for a better educated police force
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for decades, including two federal commissions that raise the issue
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all the way back in the nineteen thirties in the
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nineteen sixties. So research has actually found that education may
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improve officers interactions with the public, and college educated officers
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actually use force less often and have less disciplinary action
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taken against them than their peers without a degree, and
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this may be particularly important for officers serving in minority communities.
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College exposes students to actually all people from all sorts
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of backgrounds, right from various backgrounds, allowing them to actually
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develop a greater appreciation and compassion for others, and that
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is what a study in twenty twenty three found all right,
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and college educated authors have also been found to be
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better report writers, and that is something that we've found
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that a lot of folks are struggling with, is how
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to write well, you know, and how to write police reports. Well,
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so this could actually translate into better investigations, higher court
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case filings, fewer evidentiary constitutional challenges, and fewer false confessions
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are wrongful convictions, you know, and also more successful prosecution overall. All, right,
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And that was what a twenty seventeen report on the
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role of higher education and policing found. However, education requirements
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also create an additional barrier for certain groups, including those
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who can't afford college. Right, So does lowering educations solve
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staffing shortages? Well, several departments have seen a surgeon applications
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after actually nixing the college education requirements, but there are
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some signs that loosening standards doesn't necessarily solve staffing problems.
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And in the month after Philadelphia Police Department, for instance,
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dropped its requirement that recruits have at least two years
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of college credit under their belt in twenty sixteen, applications
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actually skyrocketed to more than fifty seven hundred, up from
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a high of less than two thousand in previous years.
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Application drives and Captain John Walker stated, I think it
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just was because people who couldn't apply before just decided
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that they wanted to be police officers, he said. But
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Philadelphia police staffing stayed flat in twenty sixteen at ninety
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six percent and dipped slightly the following year, according to Walker,
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now we sit at eighty two percent staffing, he said.
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So applications over in the New Orleans Police Department rose
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after the jettison a college education requirement, which was about
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ten years ago that they did that, and it spiked
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to a high of seventy four hundred and forty and
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twenty seventeen. However, the department continue to hire around only
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one hundred people each year, and far fewer after twenty twenty.
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I think that this is a societal problem, folks, you know,
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and we all have to face the fact that we
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as humans have continued to actually stumble and fall for
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the past several years. Right, just society as a whole.
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We've allowed our vocal minority to turn good into bad
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and bad into good. We have such a low appreciation
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for music and art that we see people cheering for
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lyrics that call for hurting and killing others. We see
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people admiring art that depicts the most vulgar things, art
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that laxi any type of refinement or class whatsoever. And
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we've seen criminals catered to while law enforcement has been
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promoted as being evil and bad. And we've seen entire
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areas of the cities turn into cesspools that people do
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not even want to visit anymore. Soft on crime jurisdictions,
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we've all seen it. They're becoming ghost towns because businesses
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cannot afford to stay there any longer. And you know,
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no wonder it's hard to find people who want to
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work in law enforcement. So I've got a question for
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all of you, all of you out there listening to
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this podcast right now, be honest, and how many of
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you would actually want to be a police officer, you know,
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work in law enforcement. How many of you would want
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to put up with what officers have to put up
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with on a daily basis, for ashly, what most people
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would consider low pay. You know, many cops starting making
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less than forty five thousand dollars a year. So what
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about me? You know, I started at nineteen thousand and
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some change back in nineteen ninety one, nineteen and change. Okay,
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let's just call it twenty thousand, even, we'll just call
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it twenty thousand. So where are we today? Compared to
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where we were back then. Right, back then, I could
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buy a brand new sports car back then for thirteen
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thousand dollars and gas, well, gas was a bucket gallon.
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But fast forward to today and gas is three times that,
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and car prices have skyrocketed. You're not getting the same
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level vehicle for thirty nine thousand dollars, right, three times
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what I paid today is what I got back then.
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And police pay well, it is not increased at a
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level that meets the rising cost of everything over the
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past thirty years. Everybody that's listening to this knows what
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I'm talking about. You are all suffering, just like all
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cops are. Right with the rising prices of everything, and
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cops would almost be breaking even if they were, you know,
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making a minimum of sixty thousand starting today, they would
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almost break even. Well, not really, right, not when you
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factor in all of the other costs that of skyrocketed,
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like housing and food. All of you are dealing with this,
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You know exactly what I'm talking about, and that puts
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your average law enforcement offter, way below the level of
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comfortable living. And well, people are not stupid, right, they
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can see this, and they are choosing to work in
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other fields, fields that are much less dangerous, probably for
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double or triple or even more than that, you know,
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in pay right then what they would make as a
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law enforcement officer. And yes, even people straight up of
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high school, straight out of high school are not willing
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to take a pay cut right well, to actually be
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a pay cut to risk their lives dealing with the
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unknown on a daily basis, compared to what they could
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make doing other things like a good trade school. And
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then you know, working in a trade. Well, yes, I'm
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one of those cops, okay that have a college education.
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So what do I think about recruits without a degree, Well,
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I absolutely love them, absolutely love them. And what do
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I think about the recruits with a degree. I absolutely
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love them too, all right, we actually have one in
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the academy right now with a masters. But I love
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them all. And why do I say that? Why do
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I love them all? Because these are people who know
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that they are worth way more than an l job
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can pay them. But they choose to join our ranks
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because it is a calling for them. They want to
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truly protect and serve others, knowing that this job can
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take their life in an instant, whether that be from
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a bullet traveling at twelve hundred feet per second, a
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car travel at one hundred twenty miles per hour, or
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one of the many illnesses that plague this profession. These
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people join us because of who they are and what
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they stand for and recruits, well, they'll always say that
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they want to help other people. They all say the
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same thing. That's a standard answer that we hear all
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the time. But you know what, it's true. They do
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not become cops to get rich and famous. They do
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not become cops because it's an easy job where everyone's
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going to love you. They become cops because they have
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a calling to help others and to try to make
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the world a little better place each day. And folks,
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today actually kicks off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, So we
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would like to encourage all of our businesses in town
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here in Bedford to participate in Paint the Town Pink. Okay,
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and we also want to remind everybody don't forget to
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come by the Municipal building right there to fifteen East
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Main Street next week and visit the Paint the Town
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Pink display out in front of the Municipal building. Okay,
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that's going up this weekend from what I understand, and
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you know, it's very special because we have breast cancer
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survivors that are taking part in that, in painting the
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town pink and that decoration over here at the Municipal Builague.
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But there's going to be others, there's going to be
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other places that actually, you know, are painting the town
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pink throughout Bedford. So we appreciate all you guys, and
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you know, just wanted to remind you of that. So
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today I'd like to pay tribute to K nine Archer
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of the Hawaii County Police Department. Hawaii Canaan archers end
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of watch was Thursday, September fourth, twenty twenty five. This
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is so sad to me, folks. You hear me talk
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about this all the time. Canaan Archers come to heatstroke
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after being left in a patrol vehicle on September fourth,
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twenty twenty five. The temperature reached ninety degrees during the day.
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Cadine Archer had served the Waii County Police Department for
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four years and was assigned to the Canoa Vice Section.
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And you know, good good outfit out there. The ConA
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of Vice Section is good outfit, all right. Canaan Archer
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was six years old, four years on his tour of
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du and cause of his death was heatstroke. Canaine Archer
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was a Belgian mountain wall and a German shepherd mix
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and we definitely pay tribute to Canine Archer. Folks. We
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talk about this all the time, how tragic this is
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when patrol vehicles have what should be fail safe built
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into them that are supposed to roll down windows, open
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doors to let the canine out, for instance, and something
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goes wrong both with the AC unit and the fail
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safe and that dogs trapped inside. But that doesn't take
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anything away from the sacrifice the Canaine Archer made and
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it was a duty related at incident, So we definitely
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pay tribute to that ulster or of that Canaine ulster,
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as well as all the ulsters and other canines that
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have paid the ultimate price in the line of duty.
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And folks, that's all I have for you today. So
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we wanted to just remind you that your friends were
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your neighbors, but most of all, we are your police
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department and we thank you for your support. I'm Captain
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Robert Kimbell, Betford, Stay STA
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Coming to you from hometown America, the Land of the
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Free and the home of the brave, Bedford, Virginia. Welcome
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to cop Talk. I'm Captain Robert Kimbrel. And the Dallas
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Police Department had been shrinking for years. You know, they
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were losing more officers than they hired in competition for recruits.
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Well it's been fierce. Then the hiring woes got even
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worse and more dire in the fall of twenty twenty four,
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when voters passed a proposition that actually required the force
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to have at least four thousand officers, hundreds more that
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it had even you know, had at its peak in
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twenty ten. So the department actually tried a new recruiting strategy,
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and that was to make it easier to hire by
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dropping the requirements that applicants actually have a college you know,
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some college credits under their belt. So Dallas is one
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of the departments that while they didn't you know, require
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a degree, they required college credits. So and Dallas isn't alone.
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It's among several cities to actually relax college education requiring
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hiring requirements for officers, you know, and the years long
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trend that includes Chicago, Memphis, you know, Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky
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and also New Orleans. You know, so all those cities Chicago, Memphis, Louisville,
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and New Orleans, they they've all actually dropped their requirements
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that they had for for degrees or for college credits,
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you know. So you know the changes they they bring
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these cities back in alignment. Actually with much of the nation, Okay,
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more than eighty percent of law enforcement agencies only require
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actually a high school diploma to be hired. And according
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to a twenty seventeen survey of nearly one thousand departments nationwide,
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we know eighty percent only required a high school diplomat
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or a GED. All right, so in a perfect world, well,
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you would want police officers to be college educated, absolutely,
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But this is where policing is now, said Chuck Wexler.
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He's the executive director of the Police Executive Research Form.
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He states, you know, there simply is more demand for officers,
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for qualified police officers than there is supply, and research
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is actually found there are some benefits to stricter standards.
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College educated officers tend to use less force, have fewer complaints,
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and write better reports. And in the week since Dallas
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police made the change, applications have actually begun to roll
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in from people who previously wouldn't have been able to
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become a police officer. But you know, it's important to
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note the recruits must still pass a civil service test,
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a physical exam, of background checks, as well as you know,
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psychological and medical evaluations before they can enter the ten
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month long police academy. So if we come across over
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here to the East coast, the NYPD announced in February
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it would lower its education requirement from sixty college credits
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down to twenty four, and the department said in a
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statement it reached out to thousands of previously ineligible candidates
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in hopes of amassing thirty five thousand officers by the
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fall of twenty twenty six. And then if you go
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all the way back over to the West coast in California,
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after a push to require prospective officers under twenty five
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to get a bachelor's degree, now lawmakers are considering new
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legislation that would require officers have either a bachelor's and
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associates a modern policing degree, or a professional policing certificates,
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and that certificate would actually require at least fifth team credits,
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and all those credits can actually partially be obtained through
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the Police Academy coursework, and the requirements don't apply to
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people with at least four years of military experience or
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law enforcement experience from another state. So you know, the
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question is out there, does college education actually help police officers? Well,
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experts have been calling for a better educated police force
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for decades, including two federal commissions that raise the issue
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all the way back in the nineteen thirties in the
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nineteen sixties. So research has actually found that education may
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improve officers interactions with the public, and college educated officers
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actually use force less often and have less disciplinary action
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taken against them than their peers without a degree, and
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this may be particularly important for officers serving in minority communities.
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College exposes students to actually all people from all sorts
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of backgrounds, right from various backgrounds, allowing them to actually
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develop a greater appreciation and compassion for others, and that
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is what a study in twenty twenty three found all right,
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and college educated authors have also been found to be
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better report writers, and that is something that we've found
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that a lot of folks are struggling with, is how
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to write well, you know, and how to write police reports. Well,
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so this could actually translate into better investigations, higher court
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case filings, fewer evidentiary constitutional challenges, and fewer false confessions
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are wrongful convictions, you know, and also more successful prosecution overall. All, right,
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And that was what a twenty seventeen report on the
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role of higher education and policing found. However, education requirements
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also create an additional barrier for certain groups, including those
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who can't afford college. Right, So does lowering educations solve
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staffing shortages? Well, several departments have seen a surgeon applications
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after actually nixing the college education requirements, but there are
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some signs that loosening standards doesn't necessarily solve staffing problems.
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And in the month after Philadelphia Police Department, for instance,
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dropped its requirement that recruits have at least two years
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of college credit under their belt in twenty sixteen, applications
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actually skyrocketed to more than fifty seven hundred, up from
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a high of less than two thousand in previous years.
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Application drives and Captain John Walker stated, I think it
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just was because people who couldn't apply before just decided
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that they wanted to be police officers, he said. But
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Philadelphia police staffing stayed flat in twenty sixteen at ninety
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six percent and dipped slightly the following year, according to Walker,
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now we sit at eighty two percent staffing, he said.
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So applications over in the New Orleans Police Department rose
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after the jettison a college education requirement, which was about
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ten years ago that they did that, and it spiked
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to a high of seventy four hundred and forty and
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twenty seventeen. However, the department continue to hire around only
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one hundred people each year, and far fewer after twenty twenty.
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I think that this is a societal problem, folks, you know,
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and we all have to face the fact that we
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as humans have continued to actually stumble and fall for
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the past several years. Right, just society as a whole.
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We've allowed our vocal minority to turn good into bad
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and bad into good. We have such a low appreciation
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for music and art that we see people cheering for
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lyrics that call for hurting and killing others. We see
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people admiring art that depicts the most vulgar things, art
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that laxi any type of refinement or class whatsoever. And
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we've seen criminals catered to while law enforcement has been
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promoted as being evil and bad. And we've seen entire
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areas of the cities turn into cesspools that people do
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not even want to visit anymore. Soft on crime jurisdictions,
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we've all seen it. They're becoming ghost towns because businesses
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cannot afford to stay there any longer. And you know,
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no wonder it's hard to find people who want to
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work in law enforcement. So I've got a question for
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all of you, all of you out there listening to
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this podcast right now, be honest, and how many of
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you would actually want to be a police officer, you know,
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work in law enforcement. How many of you would want
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to put up with what officers have to put up
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with on a daily basis, for ashly, what most people
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would consider low pay. You know, many cops starting making
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less than forty five thousand dollars a year. So what
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about me? You know, I started at nineteen thousand and
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some change back in nineteen ninety one, nineteen and change. Okay,
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let's just call it twenty thousand, even, we'll just call
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it twenty thousand. So where are we today? Compared to
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where we were back then. Right, back then, I could
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buy a brand new sports car back then for thirteen
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thousand dollars and gas, well, gas was a bucket gallon.
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But fast forward to today and gas is three times that,
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and car prices have skyrocketed. You're not getting the same
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level vehicle for thirty nine thousand dollars, right, three times
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what I paid today is what I got back then.
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And police pay well, it is not increased at a
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level that meets the rising cost of everything over the
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past thirty years. Everybody that's listening to this knows what
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I'm talking about. You are all suffering, just like all
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cops are. Right with the rising prices of everything, and
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cops would almost be breaking even if they were, you know,
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making a minimum of sixty thousand starting today, they would
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almost break even. Well, not really, right, not when you
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factor in all of the other costs that of skyrocketed,
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like housing and food. All of you are dealing with this,
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You know exactly what I'm talking about, and that puts
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your average law enforcement offter, way below the level of
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comfortable living. And well, people are not stupid, right, they
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can see this, and they are choosing to work in
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other fields, fields that are much less dangerous, probably for
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double or triple or even more than that, you know,
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in pay right then what they would make as a
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law enforcement officer. And yes, even people straight up of
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high school, straight out of high school are not willing
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to take a pay cut right well, to actually be
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a pay cut to risk their lives dealing with the
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unknown on a daily basis, compared to what they could
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make doing other things like a good trade school. And
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then you know, working in a trade. Well, yes, I'm
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one of those cops, okay that have a college education.
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So what do I think about recruits without a degree, Well,
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I absolutely love them, absolutely love them. And what do
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I think about the recruits with a degree. I absolutely
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love them too, all right, we actually have one in
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the academy right now with a masters. But I love
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them all. And why do I say that? Why do
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I love them all? Because these are people who know
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that they are worth way more than an l job
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can pay them. But they choose to join our ranks
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because it is a calling for them. They want to
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truly protect and serve others, knowing that this job can
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take their life in an instant, whether that be from
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a bullet traveling at twelve hundred feet per second, a
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car travel at one hundred twenty miles per hour, or
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one of the many illnesses that plague this profession. These
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people join us because of who they are and what
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they stand for and recruits, well, they'll always say that
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they want to help other people. They all say the
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same thing. That's a standard answer that we hear all
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the time. But you know what, it's true. They do
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not become cops to get rich and famous. They do
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not become cops because it's an easy job where everyone's
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going to love you. They become cops because they have
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a calling to help others and to try to make
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the world a little better place each day. And folks,
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today actually kicks off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, So we
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would like to encourage all of our businesses in town
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here in Bedford to participate in Paint the Town Pink. Okay,
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and we also want to remind everybody don't forget to
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come by the Municipal building right there to fifteen East
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Main Street next week and visit the Paint the Town
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Pink display out in front of the Municipal building. Okay,
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that's going up this weekend from what I understand, and
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you know, it's very special because we have breast cancer
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survivors that are taking part in that, in painting the
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town pink and that decoration over here at the Municipal Builague.
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But there's going to be others, there's going to be
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other places that actually, you know, are painting the town
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pink throughout Bedford. So we appreciate all you guys, and
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you know, just wanted to remind you of that. So
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today I'd like to pay tribute to K nine Archer
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of the Hawaii County Police Department. Hawaii Canaan archers end
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of watch was Thursday, September fourth, twenty twenty five. This
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is so sad to me, folks. You hear me talk
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about this all the time. Canaan Archers come to heatstroke
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after being left in a patrol vehicle on September fourth,
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twenty twenty five. The temperature reached ninety degrees during the day.
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Cadine Archer had served the Waii County Police Department for
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four years and was assigned to the Canoa Vice Section.
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And you know, good good outfit out there. The ConA
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of Vice Section is good outfit, all right. Canaan Archer
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was six years old, four years on his tour of
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du and cause of his death was heatstroke. Canaine Archer
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was a Belgian mountain wall and a German shepherd mix
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and we definitely pay tribute to Canine Archer. Folks. We
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talk about this all the time, how tragic this is
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when patrol vehicles have what should be fail safe built
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into them that are supposed to roll down windows, open
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doors to let the canine out, for instance, and something
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goes wrong both with the AC unit and the fail
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safe and that dogs trapped inside. But that doesn't take
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anything away from the sacrifice the Canaine Archer made and
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it was a duty related at incident, So we definitely
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pay tribute to that ulster or of that Canaine ulster,
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as well as all the ulsters and other canines that
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have paid the ultimate price in the line of duty.
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And folks, that's all I have for you today. So
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we wanted to just remind you that your friends were
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your neighbors, but most of all, we are your police
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department and we thank you for your support. I'm Captain
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Robert Kimbell, Betford, Stay STA
