Police and Academe: Some Surprising Similarities
| Published date | 01 October 1979 |
| Date | 01 October 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7905200406 |
| Author | William R. Taber |
| Subject Matter | Article |
WILLIAM R. TABER
Professor The City University
of
New York.
John Jay College
of
Criminal Justice
POLICE
AND
ACADEME:
SOME
SURPRISING
SIMILARITIES
I am a college professor and chairman of an academic department.
Recently, I accompanied New York City police officers on a number
of full tours in various precincts in the Bronx, including the 41st
"Fort
Apache" Precinct' of past fame and the 44th Precinct,
presently one of the busier precincts in the city. It is no longer an
exceptional occasion when a college professor becomes interested in
the enforcement branches of the criminal justice system,
accompanies police officers on tours ofduty, or(as in one case which
is still rather unique) serves for a time as a police officer. These
contacts are interchanges of contrastingprofessional and occupation
perspectives. The results of such meetings are more likely to be
documented by the professors than by the police officers; so the
published record is probably one-sided. Nevertheless, on both sides
the outcome seems to range from increased understanding
(sympathetic. or hostile) to a kind of "convertion" to the other's
point of view.
During the past decade in the classrooms of higher education, an
increasing number of American police officers have been exposed to
the positive elements of a liberalarts education and have cautiously
attained an understanding of its significance to their job. More
recently in the classroom of the patrol car, a few college professors
have attained abetter understanding of the challenges of the police
role, and there is one documented case of a rather complete
"convertion" of a college professor to a police occupa-
tional ideology>, Obviously, the meeting of police officers and
college professors has an impact upon both. However, most
descriptions and accounts of such meetings tend to emphasize
'Tom Walker, "The Siege of Fort Apache," in Donal MacNamara, ed., Readings in
Criminal Justice 77/78 (Sluice Dock, Conn.: Dushkin Publishing, Inc. 1978), pp. 42-
48.
2For a description of European police trainingwhich incorporates such education into
its training and administrative structure, see George Berkley"Europe and America:
How The Police Work," The New Republic. August 2, 1969, pp. 15-18.
3George Kirkham,
From
Professor to Patrolman: A Fresh Perspective on the Police,
Journal
of
Police Science and Administration. 2(June 1974) pp. 127-137.
October 1979 373
To continue reading
Request your trial