Police Training Courses - Preparing Yourself for a Police Career

As police officer opportunities become more competitive, police training courses likewise become more vital. Fortunately, the ever-increasing access to quality police training courses, both online and on campus, has made the completion of vital police training courses easier than ever.

As an overview, consider these educative options as your introduction to an array of valuable police training courses.

Vocational Diplomas

It's a good idea to begin with an online search for vocational schools that provide police training courses. Many present classes online, others in a more conventional setting. In either case, although a vocational diploma should not be considered as a replacement for a college degree in criminal justice, it does provide a sound introduction to law enforcement. As an added benefit, the diploma serves as strong foundation for students who are eventually attend a police academy, or for those who are not certain if they want to invest in a criminal justice degree.
Typically, vocational schools separate their programs into segments or modules. The curriculum will most probably begin with an introduction to criminal justice system and all of its parts, such as the court system and juvenile justice as examples.

Subsequent segments will concentrate on evidence collection and analysis, gathering and identifying evidence, safe-guarding a crime scene, techniques for interviewing and interrogation, or basic investigative skills. Ultimately, the sessions will become more advanced, and will address criminal law, constitutional law, the protection of rights, and criminal prosecution, to name a few.

The intent of these vocational police training courses is to provide students with a familiarity of the criminal justice system. In this regard, the curriculum does an excellent job and offers a solid foundation for further advanced studies, either prior to or after admission to a police agency.

It should be noted that the vocational diploma is far more affordable than a degree. Tuition can start as low as $1000 for a whole course.

Associate or Bachelor Degrees

The most advanced police training courses are those offered as a part of a university degree in criminal justice. In fact, countless police departments do require a degree as a condition of employment, however not necessarily a criminal justice degree.

Regardless, a college degree of any type is a significant asset for all police candidates. With respect to individuals who are committed to a criminal justice degree, the good news is that both web and traditional academic institutions offer a wide variety of options.

Like all college degrees, both the associate and bachelor's programs in criminal justice require a combination of elective classes as well as core classes. Electives commonly consist of mathematics and sciences, foreign language, or social studies, among others. In addition, both associate and bachelor criminal justice degree programs offer a variety of core courses where classes specific to the major are offered. In all cases, the classes and the prerequisites shall be determined by the individual academic institutions, and by the specific focus of the degree.

While the associate degree is not definitive as the bachelor's degree, the associate degree does provide a strong introduction to the criminal justice system. Opening core course will likely contain a study of the overall criminal justice system.

Additionally, similar to the bachelor programs, the associate programs will focus on subjects such as crime scene investigations, or corrections, or other sorts of career specific police training courses. All credits received during the course of the associate's degree can be applied to a bachelor's degree.

Bachelor's degrees in criminal justice provide a more advanced course of study when compared to the associate degree programs. Again, specializations will differ depending on the institution. Bachelor level police training courses, bachelor's classes are very likely to delve into more advanced aspects of criminal law, constitutional law, physical evidence analysis, classification of crimes, police procedures, or domestic violence and juvenile justice issues. Even more specialized police training courses will focus in part on organized criminal pursuits, gang violence, drug investigations, or community policing.