ABSTRACT
In the mid-1990s, the United States Congress funded an innovative police training program called Police Corps. It was modeled after the Army ROTC program, offering young people a 4-year college education in exchange for a 4-year commitment to serve as an officer in a local police department. The Police Corps residential training program incorporated community policing theory, methods, and approaches into an innovative police training curriculum. During the design stage, hundreds of local police officers from around the United States were asked to identify key training priorities. Experienced officers responded that new officers needed to know how to talk with people and learn what to do with their hands. By this they meant officers needed to know how to defend themselves, but also how to present themselves to people in a less confrontational manner. This clearly reflected concerns about new officers’ abilities to communicate with the public in a respectful manner. The Police Corps took on the challenge of training officers who would understand not only the theory behind community policing, but also the specific actions required to make the theory a reality. Many of the chiefs interviewed in this book have Police Corps graduates in their own departments.
