Hacker News Reader

Comment by barry-cotter | Hacker News Reader

I’m not aware of any European country that requires police officers to have a degree but they all have much longer training periods than is normal in the US. If I recall correctly in both Germany and Ireland at least take three years before you’re basically tenured and can only be fired for gross misconduct.

View on HN

Sweden doesn't require a degree, but training is 3 years and a 'degree' from the a police school is considered equivalent to a bachelors degree. All the academic courses (law, sociology, criminology etc.) you take give 'real' academic credits that you can transfer if you for example want to apply to study for a different academic degree later.

Same in Finland. All police officers go to the Police University College, which counts as a University of Applied Sciences, just like engineering schools.

Same in Norway. I suspect the remaining Nordic state is similar.

Lithuania requires two-year academy for beat cops and 4-year bachelor's (specific programme, with law and social studies as basis) for detectives and such. I think (but not certain) special investigation units require master's in law as well.

What’s a “special investigation unit?”

Something like FBI in US, people who investigate government corruption, organized crime, national security threats, etc.

Czech Republic does require a degree since early 2000s. Back then I had a few classmates who were cops and went to college to satisfy the new requirement.

The UK has an apprenticeship scheme where police officers gain a degree whilst learning to do the job.

I support this.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com