College education for police officers has been a noble experiment in the move to professionalize law enforcement. Although the educational level of police officers has increased, attempts to achieve professional status and provide society with law enforcement agencies employing only college- educated officers have failed. This paper explores the history and philoso phy of college education for police officers and examines the reasons why, to some degree, the movement has not succeeded. Results suggest that in their zeal, the various commission reports failed to identify and consider five factors: the autonomy of police administrators, that agencies should be representative of the communities they serve, education's effect on pro fessionalism, the necessity of higher education and motivational factors associated with educational attainment. More disturbing are officers' per ceptions that agencies do not support their educational pursuits.
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I wish to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful insights and recommendations on an earlier draft of this paper and the staff of San Juan College library for their assistance in gathering the necessary research material.
