If You Can’t Understand the People You Police, You Don’t Deserve the Badge

Let’s stop tiptoeing around the obvious.

You cannot hand legal authority — the power to detain, to use force, to take liberty, and in rare cases a life — to people who have never been educated to understand other human beings.

You cannot hand legal authority — the power to detain, to use force, to take liberty, and in rare cases a life — to people who have never been educated to understand other human beings.

A badge without maturity and historical awareness isn’t public safety —
it is licensed ignorance.

And ignorance with authority always lands on the backs of the vulnerable.

This isn’t anti-police. I devoted my life to policing.
This is pro-public safety, pro-democracy, and pro-justice.

And here is a truth you will not hear from the police unions or the cable news “law-and-order” chorus:

College-educated cops are better cops. Period.

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I’ve Seen Both Worlds — And One Is Better

When I was appointed Chief of Police in Burnsville, Minnesota in 1969 — a young chief who believed policing could be better — we instituted a mandatory four-year college degree requirement for every new officer.

People said it was radical. I said it was overdue.

Burnsville still has that requirement today — one of the very few departments in America, the top one-percent, that demands real higher education. You don’t see these 1% cities drowning in misconduct scandals. There’s a reason.

Then I went to Madison, Wisconsin. I could not convince the Police Commission to enact a 4-year degree requirement. So we built a different approach — we paid for wisdom.

• +18% salary for a bachelor’s degree.
• +21% salary for a master’s or law degree.

You know what happened?

Officers pursued education.
The culture shifted.
The department evolved into one of the most thoughtful, community-centered, constitutional policing agencies in the country.

Today, the vast majority of Madison officers hold college degrees — because we made learning a professional expectation, not a luxury.

Let me put it plainly:

Educated cops — as a group — think better, listen better, communicate better, and police better.

I know because I hired them, led them, trained them, and watched them grow and serve our community with dignity and restraint.

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Ignorance + Power = Harm

A gun is not what makes an officer powerful. Judgment does.

But judgment comes from exposure, challenge, reflection, and learning — not from a weekend tactical course and a high-school diploma.

Without college-level study of history, sociology, psychology, race, trauma, and ethics, we leave officers armed with law but empty of context.

That’s how you get:

• Force when listening was needed.
• Arrests when discretion was wiser.
• Escalation when patience would save a life.
• Fear of difference masquerading as “command presence.”

And if you don’t understand the history of policing in this country — from slave patrols to Jim Crow to mass incarceration — you walk into communities already scarred by the badge without knowing why trust is fragile.

A cop who doesn’t know history will repeat it.
A cop who does — breaks the cycle.

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“Compassionate” Policing Is Not Soft — It’s Strategic

Weak cops reach for force.
Strong cops reach for understanding first.

Educated officers know:

• Discretion isn’t weakness, it’s wisdom.
• Empathy isn’t softness, it’s intelligence.
• Every person they encounter has a story.
• Mental illness and trauma are not criminal acts.

And yes — the understanding that the world does not revolve around them; that’s what a good education is!

There are others in this world much different than you and I might be.

That’s the first lesson of higher education, and the most important lesson in policing.

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Raise the Standard or Lower the Trust

America has a choice: Do we want police who merely comply with the Constitution, or police who understand it?

Do we want officers who see “outsiders” as threats, or officers who know there are no outsiders in a democracy?

You get what you train for.
And you get what you require.

If a profession holds life-and-death power, it must demand intellect, maturity, and cultural competence — not just a pulse and a clean background.

We don’t need more warriors. We need more mature adults with badges.

Because in a free society, if you cannot understand the people you police — you do not deserve the badge.