A great two days in Mason City, Iowa at the Northern Iowa Area Community College talking to students, faculty, local police, and citizens about policing a free society. They had me up and at the TV station for the 5:30 a.m. news, breakfast, a meeting with the Criminal Justice Association, lunch with Sheriff Kevin Pals, Instructor George O’Donnell (who was my host), and College President Steven Schulz. Then at 7 p.m.. after being introduced by Mason City Police Chief Michael Lashbrook, I gave a presentation to students, police, and community members about “Policing a Free society.”
I love colleges, talking to students, faculty, police and citizens.
It is through our academic institutions that change is often begun.
Overall, we have good police in our country, but a country like ours, a free and democratic society deserves GREAT POLICE.
And to make that happen is my mission!
These are the kinds of conversations that need to go on in your community to help improve your police. After all, we are all in this together. And post-Ferguson, what an opportunity to talk about what’s important.
To see the coverage from local Mason City TV station KIMT — CLICK HERE.
Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation 
Do you have evidence that supports the conclusion that police officers with a college education are better police officers than police officers without a college education?
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A very good question. The evidence that I have seen is inconclusive, most of it (me including) is anecdotal. Obviously, the degree does not make the man or the women, but what I believe post-high school education does is broaden one’s perspective of people and the world.
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The FBI is comprise of college graduate; however, when you look at their history, those agents did not have a broaden perspective of people and the world and violate people’s rights just as much as the high school education police officers.
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I’d like to see the data on that. Sure, an organization can distort the values of its employees, but would I rather have a 1,000 high school graduates enforcing the law or 1,000 college graduates. My bias is for the latter!
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The way corporations and the Koch Brothers are trying to take over the colleges, make decisions in re-writing American history books, making decisions on who to hire as teachers, etc., will defeat the purpose of broadening one’s perspective of people and the world. Then again, when you look at your average American student (particularly a business and/or police student), how often does he/she tried to learn about other cultures and societies while they are at an American college or at a foreign college? Our students don’t even know the dark side of American history such as the police and military suppressing and murdering striking workers during the 19th and 20th centuries.
If you look at our best colleges for the last 34 years, they have been becoming the bastions for wealthy families and children of alumni who attend those colleges because those alumni and wealthy families have money to contribute to the colleges (with strings attached).
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That’s why in a free society all should have access to higher education, cops or not.
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I agreed with you. Germany had just eliminated tuition fees this year which were established in 2006; however, slowly, the various German states eliminated the fees because it was hurting German students who could not afford to pay them plus scaring off the international students.
Unfortunately, you had guys like Ronald Reagan who cut funding to higher education because he felt that government should not be subsidizing intellectual curiosity. Reagan had forgotten that it wasn’t for the free education afford to the GIs after World War II, the US would have not made the technical and scientific discoveries,that were made by bright GIs who came from a poor background.
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