Policing & Society, Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2007, pp. 303 320
A Modern Police Science1 as an Integrated Academic Discipline: A Contribution to the Debate on its Fundamentals Hans-Gerd Jaschke & Klaus Neidhardt
There are many new challenges for senior police officers in a globalized world: International management skills, knowing about scientific apporaches, the management of knowledge and information. It seems to be clear, that a police manager’s job qualifications fit into the profiles of other academic disciplines. The Bologna process is leading to bachelor and master degrees in the fields of police training and education in the EU member states. Developing Police Science as an integrative discipline within and outside the police seems to be a proper way of solving problems to the benefit of both * the police and the society. Keywords: Police Science; Police Research; Police Studies; Police training; Police Education Observing the development of the police in Germany over an extended period of time, we can identify some distinct tendencies. In post-war Germany, the police changed from an organization with a rather military character representing the authority of the State to a force oriented towards democracy and obligated to secure citizens’ basic civil rights. Over the years, police tasks and methods have become more complex, more international and increasingly specialized. The police have changed from a traditional bureaucracy that had a monopoly on the use of force into a modern public service organization.2 But this was not a linear process with a pre-defined end; rather, it was an historical organizational development that is not yet complete, and it includes not only progress, but also setbacks and standstills. Hans-Gerd Jaschke, University of Applied Sciences, FHVR Berlin, Germany. Klaus Neidhardt, German Police University, Mu¨nster, Germany. Correspondence to: Hans-Gerd Jaschke, University of Applied Sciences, FHVR Berlin, Germany. Tel.: 49-30-9021-4353. E-mail: h.jaschke@fhvr-berlin.de ISSN 1043-9463 (print)/ISSN 1477-2728 (online) # 2007 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/10439460701717882
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These changes in the organization and self-perception of the police went hand in hand with changes in police education and training. The introduction of police education programs at technical colleges in the 1970s, and the systematic differentiation and updating of the federal and state police training concepts has improved the quality of police education and training, and has extended the academic components of police education. At the police leadership and management academy (Polizei-Fu¨hrungsakademie), police leadership training has constantly been adapted to new developments, and currently there are preparations underway to convert the German police academy into a police university (Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei). In view of these developments, it is no longer sufficient to merely integrate the various academic disciplines and specialist fields, to employ academically educated personnel, and to combine police training with an academic education; rather, what we now need is to place the educational programs for the executive and administrative levels of the police service on a more academic level as a whole; that is, where it has not been done yet, we must place police education and training on a more academic level. This also implies that the police experience must be subjected to a more systematic methodological evaluation, reasoning, and reflection. In this context, it seems appropriate to raise some questions concerning the establishment of a comprehensive and integrated academic discipline of police science that would be composed of various sub-disciplines and subjects. Do we need such an academic field of police science? What fundamental issues should it be concerned with? What methods should it use, and what topics should it deal with? In what way could this contribute to more professionalism in the practical work of the police? The ideas set forth in this paper are a further extension of reflections that we have already presented elsewhere (Jaschke & Neidhardt, 2003). This paper is not primarily concerned with the institutional aspects of a police science within the framework of the future Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei (German police university). Rather, this paper discusses the character of police science as an integrated academic discipline. Considering the fact that the debate on the fundamental principles of police science has hardly begun, we propose the thesis that the integrated academic discipline of police science must be conceived as an integrative science. The issue of establishing an academic discipline of police science not only involves questions of its ‘‘legality’’ (i.e., the institutional structures); it includes the fact that its ‘‘legitimacy’’ is not yet fully assured. This involves the question of whether such an academic discipline of police science will receive recognition in academia, and also whether the discipline of police science will be accepted as such within the social base of the police profession: the police officers. In Part 1 of this article, we will outline profiles of academic professions and their relationship to theory and practice in order to compare them with the profile of the academically educated police officer, thus justifying the need for a modern police science. The reflections in this part of the paper are based on the assumption that not
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only the institutions of police education and training must satisfy the quality criteria that apply to academic institutions in general (Feltes, 1999),3 but that (at least in the medium term) the discipline must also satisfy the standards of quality that apply to the sciences, so that it may be possible to counter any unjustified special developments in police studies and to avoid the related danger of non-recognition by society. Based on relevant comparisons, Part 2 will show that the discipline of police science can only be conceived as an integrative science. We propose the thesis that as an integrative discipline, police science, to justify its existence, must systematically formulate and discuss fundamental questions. Part 3 addresses an issue that has not yet been sufficiently discussed in the context of the risks and opportunities of creating an academic discipline of police science, namely the question of its acceptance among the police officers themselves and the skepticism it may encounter. But a discussion of this question is imperative because a vital field of study that claims to be an integrating discipline cannot be designed on the drawing board.4 All formal and institutional founding acts must be based on considerations of the historically grown cultures and milieus of the social groups that they are intended for: in our case, the higher-ranking police officers. Part 4 makes a plea for a process- and results-oriented concept for a comprehensive and integrative academic discipline of police science. Profiles of Academic Professions and the Need for a Police Science Are lawyers legal scholars? Are teachers educationalists? Are doctors medical scientists? Are clergymen bible scholars? Are nutrition advisers nutritionists? Hardly. All these professional groups would consider themselves to be ‘‘practitioners’’ rather than ‘‘scholars’’ or ‘‘scientists’’. They had some contact with science for a few years during their academic studies, they learned from scientists, and they wrote a research paper as part of their examination, but their educational objective was to prepare for a practical profession. Their clients also have similar expectations: a lawyer’s clients, a doctor’s patients and a teacher’s pupils would not even ask whether their lawyer, their doctor or their teacher is a scientist or not; all they expect of him/her is to be a practitioner who is not working for the benefit of science or scholarship, but to satisfy the needs of his/her clients, patients or customers. Today, those working in an academic profession, such as lawyers, doctors, teachers, pharmacists, engineers, journalists, etc., have become experienced practitioners after working only a few years in the profession. Normally, in practice they apply only a part of what they learned during their academic training. But they completed an extensive academic course of studies that went far beyond just learning the ‘‘tools of the trade’’. They received a recognized academic degree, and that is what we, their customers, expect of them. We want our doctor to be a medical practitioner, but please, not without an academic degree; we seek advice from experienced lawyers and
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notaries, but we expect it from lawyers with a university degree, not from autodidacts with a little legal knowledge. Would we entrust our children to a teacher who did not study at a teachers’ college? Would we trust the static design of a building if its construction was not based on the principles of architecture? Would we place our trust in the safety of a car, a railway train or an aircraft if the designer did not have an academic degree? Society expects practical services from so-called ‘‘academics’’ with good skills and abilities. However, we do not expect them to apply their skills in an academic environment, such as in a research institute or university; rather, we expect them to apply their skills in a practical, case-oriented and action-oriented way. We expect a family doctor to cure high blood pressure, not to make use of his patients for laboratory tests; we expect a teacher to teach our children well, not to give them scientific lectures. Nevertheless, society expects such practical services to be provided by people with scientific knowledge. We expect the ‘‘academic’’ to have a university degree and academic skills that extend beyond everyday work routines; we expect that he/she has proved his/her ability to carry out academic work, and this ability is expected to be recognized with an academic degree. This creates trust between those providing a service and those receiving it. This applies especially at management level. Can anyone who does not have an academic background be principal of a school, director of a museum, director of a bank, senior surgeon, editor-in-chief, project manager, or managing director? This is practically inconceivable in the civil service, and in the private sector, it is rather the exception. But here, too, the rule is that the management level does not consist of scientists doing practical work, but of academically educated practitioners. ‘‘Cultural capital’’ (Bourdieu, 1986) in the form of an academic education is the main source of social recognition that provides legitimacy for the academically educated practitioner. Of course, there have always been people who made outstanding contributions without an academic education, such as politicians or entrepreneurs who have acquired their qualifications outside a university; however, such people are quite rare.5 There are two further reasons why our modern knowledge society expects academic training for demanding professions. First, growing demands are being placed on the professions, thus the qualifications required of those who have important functions to perform during the transition from industrial society to the service society are also increasing. Basic academic qualifications are not intended to make narrow-minded ‘‘experts’’ or ‘‘scientific freaks’’ out of young academics. Rather, an academic education is supposed to teach them flexibility in their orientation, and make them competent for action in wide areas of application, something that is achieved in police careers through a broad range of assignments. What we expect from the academics (in addition to having acquired the necessary specialist qualifications) is that they have acquired work techniques and competence in their various fields of activity.
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Second, the idea of progress is inseparably linked with science. Progress in medicine, biotechnology, computer science and other fields of knowledge inevitably links up science with professional practice. How else could discoveries and progress become effective in our society? How else could societies and national economies be competitive? Who will generate and contribute the ideas for progress in the practical work of the police?6 The police officer’s profession is relatively new in our modern democratic constitutional state. Since the transition period of the 1970s, police work has become more professional and more socially accepted, and the police force is now seen as more oriented on the citizenry. Until the 1970s, due to the failure of reforms during the Weimar Republic, the police were still largely influenced by the Prussian Common Law of 1794, which defined police work as follows: ‘‘The task of the police is to take all necessary measures to maintain public order, peace, and security, and to avert all imminent dangers to the public or to any individual members of it’’ (translated from Siemann, 1985: 9). The need for academic grounding of the police profession received more attention in the early 1970s, when police colleges were established and departments of police science were created at colleges of public administration. The programs of study for the police profession included subjects like legal studies, operational tactics, criminal investigation, criminology, and social studies. A graduate from a college of public administration was thus qualified to work as a police inspector. For the purposes of the legally prescribed career qualifications, his degree was regarded as the equivalent of a diploma in social work or a B.Sc. in engineering. The German police leadership and management academy (Polizei-Fu¨hrungsakademie) is now pursuing a similar approach for police officers at the executive level of the police service. In the course of establishing the future Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei (police university), an accredited Master’s degree program in police science will be created which is sure to give police officers greater recognition, comparable to that of the other academic professions (Jaschke & Neidhardt, 2003). Therefore, police work will become a more academic profession. For some decades, the analytical and conceptual aspects of police work (strategic planning) have grown in importance. Thus, the leadership and management tasks at the executive level of the police service have increasingly turned the police into a profession that can be compared to other academic professions. In this context, Ahlf stated ‘‘the focus of attention of police activities is no longer just the execution of laws but increasingly also the organizing and managing of crime prevention concepts . . .’’ (2001: 620). In light of these developments, the establishment of police science as an integrating academic discipline that can bring the individual subjects and groups of subjects together under one roof is of great importance for the future prospects of the police profession. The efforts that have been made so far to justify the establishment of an academic program of police studies in Germany were based on the following arguments and rationales.
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In the increasing professionalism approach, the focus is placed on an imminent need for the academic education and training of future police leaders (Feltes, 2002; Ijzerman, 2002; Jaschke & Neidhardt, 2003). According to this approach, the complexity of society, the diversity of crimes, the growing importance of crime prevention and the increasing demands made on the work of the police in general require that the police must have academic qualifications. The research-based approach argues that the development of a police science in an academic environment cannot take place without conducting research of its own, but the prerequisite for this is an integrative approach under an interdisciplinary roof (Feltes, 2002). This also applies to the empirical police research, which has experienced a considerable expansion in Germany since the 1970s (Ohlemacher, 1999). However, while it is marked by the strong dominance of the social sciences, it has so far not yet been possible to integrate the operational, legal and management subjects with the (information) technology aspects in a systematic way. The institutional approach makes reference to the three-level logic of police education and training in Germany (to the clerical, administrative and executive levels of the public service), and it calls for the implementation of the academic transformation of the police in Germany in the form of establishing a German police university (Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei) for the executive level (Jaschke & Neidhardt, 2003; Lange, 2003). This approach argues that now is a good time to introduce a Master’s degree program for the executive level of the police, since we already have police study programs at the technical colleges that are largely conceived on the basis of academic considerations. Finally, the comparative approach makes reference to the advanced level of the debates and developments taking place in the English-speaking countries in particular, but also in some of the East European countries, and it therefore calls for ‘‘catching up’’ with these countries in the development of a police science in Germany. However, it remains to be seen whether this also applies to criminology (Schneider, 2002). The systematic extension of Germany’s international commitments through the concrete implementation of the third pillar of the treaty of Maastricht (EUROPOL, EUROJUST, CEPOL, SCHENGEN) as well as the German police deployments abroad require practice-oriented and academically-based qualifications for the German police. The above-mentioned approaches are not engaged in controversy. They are partly inter-linked, and are not really opposites. Rather, they represent the key ideas of a debate in which there is a general consensus that a police science cannot be a completely autonomous discipline that is independent of other police-related disciplines, such as criminal investigation or law of criminal procedure, but it must be conceived as an integrated discipline (see Lange, 2003: 63; Stock, 2000: 115). In light of this, it may be useful to take a closer look at some of the characteristic features of other integrated disciplines that are already well enshrined in academia, and then to ask what implications this may have for the status of police science as an integrated academic discipline.
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These deliberations should be regarded as a contribution to the fundamental debate about the establishment of police science as an academic discipline, and to the discussion of what Lange called ‘‘the’’ problem, namely the problem of ‘‘connecting police science up with the scientific and academic landscape’’ (Lange, 2003: 70). Integrative Sciences and Integrated Academic Disciplines ‘‘Education’’ is a field in which there is a systematic interaction of sociology, anthropology, history, psychology, etc., without which there would be no field called ‘‘education’’. ‘‘Social science’’ is based on statistics, economics, political science, sociology and social philosophy. Literary studies are based on history, philology, philosophy and hermeneutics. Similar derivations can easily be made for natural science disciplines. Accordingly, ‘‘police science’’ is mainly based on operational subjects that are characteristic for police doctrine (operations, tactics, traffic theory, criminal investigation), on elements of jurisprudence (especially the law of criminal procedure and police law, but also criminal law, which essentially establish the conditions for the admissibility and the legal rules for specific measures), on elements of public administration and business management (concerning such issues as efficiency, usefulness, economical use of resources, structures and procedures), on elements of social science (such as history, criminology, political science, psychology, sociology, and social psychology, which allow a better understanding of actions and of the actors), and finally, information theory and specific aspects of natural science disciplines.7 The sciences that are concerned with research in education, society, nature and the economy will in the future have a ‘‘police science’’ at their side, a science that will pursue research on the police in the broadest sense. In this light, Reichertz has criticized that the call for police research as a separate discipline is ‘‘equivalent to demanding research about doctors, in addition to research in medical sociology; labor research, in addition to educational sociology; etc.’’ (Reichertz, 2003: 48). However, this criticism leads nowhere because police science and police research are not only focused on police officers and their activities, but also on the police as an institution and all of its functions. We should not forget that we speak of ‘‘engineering science’’ not only when we refer to engineers and the engineering professionals, but to engineering as a whole; and we speak of military science not only when we mean the sociology of soldiers, but the science of the military; administrative studies are not only concerned with the work of administrative personnel, but with the administration of a system of governmental regulations. Accordingly, police science is not a science that is concerned with police officers only, but one that treats the subject of ‘‘policing’’, that is, it concerns police action in our modern society and its social, administrative, technical and institutional conditions (for a definition, see Stock, 2000: 110). Police science, the science of police activities, follows the same logic as the other integrative sciences, such as educational science, social science, natural science,
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linguistics, and economics. It asks its own questions and develops its own hypotheses and theories in a discourse that is referenced to its subject. It deals with the entirety of all knowledge about the police and with all the information that is necessary for police work. Thus, it makes statements not only about what is, but also about what should be. In this sense, it is like medicine (natural science plus the practical knowledge of the physician); like educational science (knowledge of education plus pedagogy as a guide to action). Police science can thus be seen as a ‘‘normal’’ integrative science, one that is developing rather late in history only because the profession of the police officer has emerged considerably later than the teaching or medical professions, for example; and consequently, police science has developed into an academic profession rather late in time.8 The most characteristic feature and the attractiveness of an integrative discipline seems to be that it connects independent fields or sub-fields of knowledge together through common and accepted comprehensive questions and methods.9 Thus, it is possible to distinguish the newer integrative sciences (environmental, nursing, engineering sciences, etc.) from the older ones (political science, medicine, etc.); and, thus, there is a steady and continuous process of differentiation and specialization in the system of knowledge. In this process, new interdisciplinary fields of knowledge will be developed if the contributions made by the existing disciplines are no longer considered sufficient for the modeling and solving of practical problems that are perceived to be of vital importance (see Hubig, 2000: 52). The specific characteristic of an integrative discipline seems to be that it is concerned with theoretical issues that are at the same time key practical issues (problems), and in the process it integrates the different perspectives of its various sub-disciplines. The importance of key problems should not be underestimated. The most characteristic feature of these key problems is that they are questions for which there is usually no final answer; they have a guidance and orientation function; and they are regarded as highly important to the respective profession or ‘‘scientific community’’. These key problems are an important part of what Thomas Kuhn has called the ‘‘paradigm’’ of a science (see Kuhn, 1973: 11). At this point, we will just neglect the other elements of a paradigm, such as accepted methods, the relations between theories, and the common adherence to informal rules. Key questions always have an analytical and a normative horizon, and they include subsidiary questions and practical perspectives that form a unified whole: .
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Law: what is the basis of law and of legal developments in modern society? In what way is the law becoming differentiated? How are legal standards applied, and how can they be interpreted? Education: how can a good education be achieved in modern society, and what conditions will contribute to success? Political science: how can a democratic community be established, what conditions are required for its stability, and what can be done to develop it further?
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Policing & Society 311 Social sciences: what holds a modern society together, and what must be done to prevent it from eroding? Medicine: what are the necessary and sufficient conditions for good health, and what must be done to maintain or restore it? Economics: what are the principles on which a modern economy is based, and what can be done to improve the general prosperity and to attain a fair distribution of wealth?
These key questions can be differentiated even further, of course, and they can be formulated in a more complex way; however, here we only wanted to point out that key questions are the essential basis for a science. Key questions allow an integrative discipline to develop its own special identity, they allow it to establish its own special responsibilities, and they are also the basis for the specialist communication between the participating academics.10 Moreover, they are also the basis for a general interdisciplinary debate between integrated sciences.11 Their scope will extend beyond the scope of any individual discipline, and demands a continuous comprehensive debate about fundamentals that equally concerns all disciplines, and in which there are no final answers. Moreover, they are a fundamental and general frame of reference for research on concrete topics. Key questions and paradigms can frequently be found in the introductory texts of sociology, education, etc. For a police science, however, there are, as yet, no generally accepted key questions or paradigms, and there is, thus far, no continuous debate about fundamentals. Nevertheless, it may be possible at this point to suggest directions in which the key questions that combine theoretical and practical issues could be developed. For example: what makes a good police force? On what should a citizen-oriented police force in a democratic constitutional state be founded, and how should it function? What does lawful, professional, effective police action look like in a democracy, and how can this be achieved? In the final analysis, it seems to us that all police training, research and professional practice will always be concerned with these or similar questions, and if that is so, we can answer the question of what could be the key question or the paradigm for a police science. The key questions and this paradigm will then extend down into the sub-disciplines of police science, and will function there as a general frame of reference; however, they will not become a subject of discussion in the core fields of police science, such as criminology, criminal investigation, and police law. But even without use of the term ‘‘police science’’, and without being concerned about what is the subject matter of a police science, police officers have been pursuing these key questions for many decades, though in a practical way. Police training has long been characterized by a more or less systematic condensation and passing on of police-related knowledge. Today, the so-called ‘‘police subjects’’ are also characterized by this kind of knowledge, more than ever before. There is no reason why this police experience should not be integrated into a more comprehensive police science. Is our modern medicine not also founded on medical experience that is centuries old? What would our modern political science be without our experience with democracy and
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dictatorship, gathered over millennia? Is all science not founded on experience and the attempt to reflect on it, to systematize it, to learn from errors, and to test and reject hypotheses? In this sense, the references to ‘‘experience’’ and ‘‘practice’’ that we can so often hear mentioned by police officers are appropriate indications of how valuable the empirical sciences are, and they confirm that such practical knowledge can easily ‘‘connect up’’ with scientific knowledge. Today, science and the police are inter-related in many different ways. A number of special disciplines, such as criminal investigation, forensic science, criminology, police psychology, etc., are as a matter of course carrying out their work on a scientific basis; they are conducting research, they have their own specialist journals, they have established professional associations, and they are accepted in academia (or are already well on their way to becoming accepted). On this basis, the (inductive) way to an integrative police science that is concerned with broadly shared key questions should be rather ‘‘easy’’, and is practically self-evident. At the police training and education institutions, however, the different specialist disciplines are still rather strictly separated from each other. Especially at the technical colleges, where hard battles are fought between jurists, police practitioners and social scientists about the relevance and identity of their own disciplines, about academic positions, and about their share of the curriculum, conflicts that may even extend down into the disciplines. Such rivalry between disciplines and the perpetual fight for attention and resources (between sociology and political science within social science departments, or between public law and criminal law within law departments) is not unusual, and it may even promote competition. But while the disciplines at the colleges and universities derive their specialist identities and their research topics and methods from broadly shared key questions that are entered into a recognized and continuous discussion process,12 in Germany, police science has not reached this stage yet. While the police-related specialized sub-disciplines are becoming more academic due to more highly qualified personnel, the growth of professionalism among the faculty and more breadth and depth of their research output, there is also the contrary tendency of specialists becoming more isolated, which makes it increasingly difficult to establish an integrative police science. From an operationally active police officer, it is expected that he can do ‘‘anything’’ and that he can be ‘‘assigned’’ to any police function. At the same time, however, there is an increasing specialization in the functional areas of the police (operations, traffic, criminal investigation, forensic science, criminology, etc.). But to date, at least, none of the police officers that have taken courses in these various subjects at a college or at the Polizei-Fu¨hrungsakademie have ever said that they have studied ‘‘police science(s)’’. But what is it that they did study? Two Different Worlds: Police Officers’ Skepticism about Scientists and ‘‘Theorists’’ and Vice Versa A police science can only be established in Germany if this is made possible by the relevant internal and external conditions. As Sterbling has emphasized quite correctly,
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a new science ‘‘will never be exclusively or even critically dependent on the intentions, desires or acts of any one scientist or a group of scientists but on certain collective processes of implementation and recognition’’ (Sterbling, 2003: 239). These processes are mainly about political and institutional recognition (of study programs, curricula, examination regulations, degrees and certificates, creation of teaching positions, etc.), intra-academic legitimacy (through recognition by other academic professions at colleges and universities), and also (but not least) about acceptance by students and ‘‘users’’. For the police officers, this especially means acceptance into the upper levels of the public service: the administrative level, but also the executive level. Those of us who maintain contact with police officers on a continuous and daily basis during their basic and advanced training have a clear answer to the question about the extent of their accepting the idea of a police science: the police officers’ skepticism still goes very deep, and in some cases, it even amounts to open rejection. Bernd Walter (2001) has given us a paradigmatic discussion of these concerns. As Walter sees it, the scientist’s perspective is focused on analysis, while the police officer’s is focused on decisions; the scientist strives to extend his perspective, while the police officer is content with ‘‘managing practical tasks’’. According to Walter, the situation of the German police is ‘‘unique’’, thus they do not need to discuss police research carried out in foreign countries. Besides, these debates about the increasingly scientific nature of police work will only ‘‘sow the seeds of discord into the German police’’. Certainly, Walter’s position is exaggerated; it ignores the reception of police research into the practical police work, which has been taking place over many decades. Nevertheless, it might be useful to find out more about the reasons for this skepticism among police officers. The vocational training of our police officers has so far received an academic touch in only a few areas, and only since the 1970s. While the prerequisites for a career as police inspector at the executive level of the police service include a diploma in public administration, acquired at a college in an academic degree program, in actual fact the study programs vary from one German state to another. In some states, future police officers receive a kind of schooling that is not up to the level of a college education, and study programs that can be compared to those of a general college with study programs in economics, engineering, and social work (see Mo¨llers, 2003: 117, for a summary).13 For the management level of the police service, the police leadership and management academy (Polizei-Fu¨hrungsakademie) awards a careerqualifying certificate, which is only a temporary measure until the planned introduction of a Master’s degree program. However, this career-qualifying certificate from the police academy is not an academic degree, and thus it is not recognized and accepted outside the police force. The long history of the establishment of academic training courses for the police, and the great resistance that this has sometimes engendered among police officers are indications of the fact that this process has received only limited support from the police officers themselves. On the other hand, for reasons of police officers’ professional interests, the major German police associations (Police Officers’ Union,
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Federation of German Police Detectives) have long been committed to a policy of elevating police training to the level of an academic education in both a formal and qualitative way. Let us now turn to the question of why the idea of establishing a police science meets with so much skepticism among some segments of the police, and also ask why there is nevertheless some reason for optimism? Several reasons can be given for the reservations that exist among police officers. The careers of police officers in management functions are characterized by a peculiarity that distinguishes the police from those serving at the management and administrative levels in other parts of the public service. Many police officers in management functions, such as at the administrative level of the police service, have learned their profession ‘‘from the bottom up’’. Some of the older police officers in higher ranks were trained in the clerical class of the police service, and some of the younger officers received training as police inspectors. This distinguishes the police from the other comparable professions.14 They know the daily work routines of law enforcement, since they received their professional socialization in it. Their professional orientation was formed over many years of vocational experience; they have experienced the ‘‘cop culture’’ (Behr, 2000), and in their view, learning the job of a policeman meant and still means acquiring a sense of belonging to the police force. They have internalized this cop culture, or at least they have adjusted to it. There may be an occasional problem of integration and acceptance experienced by those who got in ‘‘through the side door’’, such as fully trained jurists in law enforcement. These are usually not due to any lack of specialist knowledge, but rather due to a lack of sensitivity for the working atmosphere and the tasks of policemen in specific situations of conflict and stress, as well as to a lack of other experiences associated with socialization in the ‘‘police milieu’’. In addition, there is the view that police work is a skilled trade that must be learned. This is quite correct, at least as far as the ability to cope with the standard situations is concerned. During the training of police officers at the clerical, administrative and executive level of the police service, quite a few police officers and jurists convey this basic idea to young officers. ‘‘Professional errors’’ can in fact have grave consequences for those concerned, in particular for the police officers involved. It is, therefore, imperative for police officers to acquire all the necessary police skills and qualifications. However, if a police officer automatically orients his actions on routines, and if he uses them like a recipe, this may give rise to skepticism and to reservations against reflective knowledge, which is a kind of knowledge that, in contrast to instrumental and practical knowledge, cannot really be used to keep things ‘‘under control’’. For many decades, police training consisted of senior officers passing their experience on to junior officers. For many senior officers it is essentially still true today that ‘‘at police schools, policemen learn from policemen what policemen have learned from policemen’’ (Reitz, 1988: 33). For ‘‘old-timers’’, ‘‘theory’’ is often no more than a ‘‘know-it-all’’ approach of outsiders, ill suited for practical police work.
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At some police colleges, even legal subjects like criminal law or intervention law are sometimes taught by police officers instead of fully trained jurists, the questionable rationale being that due to their practical experience, policemen will know better what other policemen will need. Obviously there is asymmetry in the structural relationship between ‘‘cognition’’ and ‘‘action’’, between scientific work and police work. These are two different worlds, hardly compatible. The indispensable skills and tools of scientists, and of academics in general, include reading, reasoning, reflection, questioning, uncertainty, discussions, making prudent judgments, and writing scholarly texts, all of which is timeconsuming. As regards the type of knowledge, it is mainly reflective knowledge that is often only provisional, at least in the humanities and the social sciences. In police practice, the traditional teaching and learning has always placed the focus on positive and applicable textbook knowledge that is oriented on action; it concerned quick and clear actions and decisions, often under the pressure of time. But comprehensive, reflective knowledge and instrumental, purpose-oriented knowledge cannot be learned easily. While there may be scientists who are active and police officers who are contemplative, what we are concerned with here is two different kinds of competence, two kinds of behavior, two different professional milieus, two different kinds of group behavior, different dispositions of individual behavior, which are not easily compatible.15 Teaching about these two different worlds is one of the primary tasks of police science and of academic institutions for police education (police colleges, police leadership and management academy, German police university), since both the discipline and the educational institutions are part of both worlds, and belong to both cultures: that of the police and that of science. Scientific methods and the results of scientific research are accessible to the general public. For certain kinds of police information, however, such as information about state security or operational tactics, there is a need for secrecy. That kind of information cannot be discussed in public, as this would reduce the effectiveness of police operations. On closer examination, however, this is not a sound reason for being skeptical about a police science. When we recapitulate the reasons for the skepticism about a police science that is so prevalent among the police, we could be led to conclude that there is not much chance of establishing police science as an academic discipline in Germany, since it will not achieve much recognition within the police forces, and will have only a marginal existence among the social sciences. These concerns can be countered, however, with some positive factors. Large segments of practical police work, particularly work in the leadership and management functions, require scientifically validated information and methods that are based on reflection and secure background knowledge. This applies, in particular, to analysis, planning, conceptual thinking, co-operation, and many other police tasks. Although at present we have no up-to-date sociological data on the young police officers that are just beginning their careers at the executive and management levels of
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the German police service, from all the knowledge and experience now available, we can conclude that there has been an increase in the number of police personnel with an academic education. In light of the current crisis in the German labor market, and considering that young people are forced to show more flexibility in their career choices, today it is not unusual that college and university graduates are undergoing regular police training. Due to their prior qualifications, these police officers thus bring academic thinking to the police training courses. The young generation of police officers at the executive and management level of the police service (those up to the age of 45) has probably attained a higher level of formal education and better qualifications outside the police force than has ever been the case before, not to mention the greater quantity and higher quality of police training, as it has historically developed. In this sense, it therefore seems appropriate to speak of a new generation in the police forces; a generation that is more open-minded as far as science is concerned than any other generation before it. The current and future need to improve the quality of police work, the generational change in the police forces outlined above, and the institutional changes that have already been initiated are all factors that are expected to have a beneficial impact on the acceptance of an integrative discipline of police science. A Process- and Results-oriented, Integrative Discipline of Police Science When the police are called to take action following a burglary, when they are in demand to keep public order during large demonstrations, or when they must pursue criminals who have committed serious crimes, do the citizens expect their police to be graduates of a college or university? Do the citizens expect the chiefs of police stations, police inspectors or heads of police precincts to be academics with a degree from a college or university? While we have no empirical data on this, we can assume that the majority of our citizens do not expect it, or at least they would not consider it to be as self-evident for a police officer to have a college education as in the case of the traditional academic professions. The developments that have taken place in police training and education during the past few years and even decades will probably not find their reflection in society’s perception of our police forces for some time. In addition, it will not come as a surprise to anyone that the expectations that young police officers have so far had for their own job qualifications did not include any academic qualifications. Experience has shown that for young police officers, the diploma in public administration (the academic degree that is awarded at the end of a course of study at a police college) is not as important for the graduates at the end of their studies as the degree ‘‘B.Sc. in Engineering’’ or ‘‘Diploma in Social Work’’ is for these other professional groups. While these professional groups establish their professional identity with their college graduation, young police officers tend to see their degree as the formal certification of their qualification to enter a career in the police service, and their rank in the police service (e.g., police inspector) is much more important to them. Academic titles like ‘‘B.Sc. in Engineering’’ or ‘‘M.Sc. in
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Chemistry’’, and being an employee of X Company or Y Company, are significant symbols for a professional’s self-perception and his perception by others. In police forces, the value that other professions ascribe to academic degrees and to titles in the company hierarchies has its equivalent in the ranks within the police forces, which are also associated with competence, responsibility, and management and leadership skills. The establishment of a police science in Germany is not just an academic issue, one that will generate only limited interest. Rather, it is an issue that requires much more attention than has been devoted so far in this debate on the fundamentals, key questions and integrating aspects of a new academic discipline. This issue not only concerns questions like institutionalization, co-operation with non-police institutions, and an extension of international relations.16 It must also consider the expectations that society has of the police as well as the self-perception of the police officers. If we fail to give consideration to the police officers themselves, if we do not lay foundations and fail to obtain the acceptance of the police forces, particularly the police officers at higher levels, then it will be difficult to establish a police science in Germany. That is why it will be necessary to make even greater efforts in the future to solve the ‘‘legitimacy problems’’ that a police science will have in Germany. As with the other sciences that are relatively new, the development of the academic discipline of police science in Germany will take place gradually and will depend on first completing certain positive steps. These will include converting the PolizeiFu¨hrungsakademie into the German police university (Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei), developing study programs and establishing examination regulations that are appropriate for an academic course of study, creating some working groups (such as AKIS), founding some publishing houses for police publications (like those that specialize in police and science subjects, e.g., Polizei und Wissenschaft), and establishing police research and police science on the European level (such as within the scope of CEPOL). In the final analysis, however, the future of a police science will primarily depend on the fruitfulness of its interdisciplinary approach (as part of the general concert of sciences and academic disciplines), and above all, on its usefulness in police practice. Notes [1]
[2]
[3]
We use the term ‘‘modern police science’’ for the new discipline to distinguish it from the older police science (Polizeiwissenschaft), a discipline firmly established at German universities until the mid-19th century that dealt with topics which would today probably be part of ‘‘public policy and administration studies’’; it is described in detail in Hans Maier’s post-doctoral thesis of 1962 (see Maier, 1965). See Feltes (2001) for additional information. See also Programm Innere Sicherheit (Internal Security Program), 1994 update, edited by the Permanent Conference of German State Ministers of the Interior. The Higher Education Committee of the Conference of Education Ministers has decided to make recognition of a future police university dependent on its accreditation by the Advisory Council on Academic Affairs four years after the change of status, at the latest.
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[4]
[5] [6]
[7] [8] [9]
[10]
[11] [12]
[13]
[14]
The claim of being an integrative discipline pertains not only to the various (sub)-disciplines and subjects of the field, but also to its theoretical pretensions, its practical relevance, and its impact on academic and police culture. It hardly needs mentioning that an academic education as such is no guarantee of good practical performance. Of course, the politicians (‘‘primacy of political authority’’), the courts, and the professional associations also provide innovative impulses for practical police work. Nevertheless, longrange concepts, such as the introduction of DNA analysis, community crime prevention and community policing, have always been initiated and/or accompanied by innovations in science. For example, the technical means of operational command and control or natural science means of criminal investigation and forensic medicine. This is confirmed by the history of police training and education in Germany, which did not begin before the late 19th century. Hubig (2000: 54 et seq.) distinguishes between multi-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches. While a multi-disciplinary approach implies a merely additive combination of different approaches, the concept of a trans-disciplinary approach calls for an incremental modification and qualification of a single-disciplinary modeling of a problem by adopting the perspectives of other disciplines. The aims of a problem-oriented interdisciplinary approach are somewhere in between ‘‘It begins with an exact and complete understanding between individual disciplines concerning the failure of solutions to problems’’. Examples: functional communication and co-operation between defense lawyers and administrative lawyers, between secondary school teachers and vocational school teachers, between orthopedists and internists is quite possible, especially because they share the basic principles and questions of the respective integrated disciplines. See, for example, the journal Universitas, which is in its 59th year of publication, and covers virtually all academic fields and integrated disciplines in a comprehensible language. This is symbolically expressed in the annual meetings and congresses held by the various disciplines and scientific associations, which are often conducted on a large scale and attended by many hundreds of people. In an expert report on colleges of public administration issued on 10 May 1995, the German Advisory Council on Academic Affairs (Wissenschaftsrat) reached the disillusioning overall conclusion that these colleges do not meet the academic standards of the general colleges. The Advisory Council, therefore, made the recommendation that the personnel structure must be improved to become more like those of the universities, the course contents must become more academic, and the colleges should be integrated into the general system of higher education. The autonomy of universities and colleges is considered an essential prerequisite. One recommendation reads as follows: ‘‘A further reform of police training and education is desirable, since a possible separation of the police training from external facilities and its continuation in the police administration would lead to an even greater isolation from the public, which is not desirable for social and political reasons, particularly in the police force’’ (Wissenschaftsrat, 1995: 64). Medical doctors did not work for years as nurses or as medical assistants; most jurists did not work for years as judicial clerks; most teachers did not work as clerks in the school administration; most Bundeswehr officers did not serve for years as company first sergeants; chief engineers or architects are not required to have worked for years on building sites; good dentists must not have long-time professional experience as dental technicians. No one would come up with the idea of demanding this or consider this to be special proof of job qualifications.
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These contradictions are particularly evident in the professional self-image of those police officers that have been employed for a long time (sometimes even without a time limit) as teachers, lecturers and instructors at the police training institutions. From an objective point of view, they are teachers, lecturers or instructors at colleges who previously worked in police forces many years ago. In their self-image, however, they have remained police officers, even 20 years after their last police operation. They receive their identity and their sense of community from the police rather than through their college. Many still see themselves as ‘‘practitioners’’, even after many years of full-time teaching, and they are labeled as such: not as college teachers, but as police practitioners. This almost comical phenomenon has so far not been the subject of an empirical study; however, it can most likely be explained by the internalized and long-standing norms of the cop culture (their sense of community), their lack of social recognition and self-acceptance at the college or police academy, and the symbolic or overt rituals of exclusion by the academics who are employed at the police education and training institutions. An example of such a new development is the establishment of the CEPOL Research and Science Committee in 2002. One of the authors of this paper belongs to this committee as a ‘‘national correspondent’’. The committee attempts to concentrate and interlink police science and police research at the EU level, e.g., by holding police science meetings or creating a database for research projects in the European Police Learning Network (EPLN).
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