The article Policing and Higher Education: Where We Are Now by Roy Roberg and Scott Bonn discuss and review previous articles and ideas on whether police should or should not be required to have completed a college degree in order to qualify for a position in law enforcement in the United States. The first person to believe in the idea that police officers should be required to have a college degree in order to hold a position was August Vollmer. August Vollmer was “the father of American police professionalism” (Walker & Katz, 2011). Vollmer is best known as a proponent of higher education within law enforcement. However, many officers and high-ranking officials did not believe in the need to obtain a college degree to protect their community. The majority of law enforcement officers did not have a college degree, and police departments did not require this to be considered for employment. Additionally, many police departments did not require a high school diploma but rather a general equivalency diploma. The first time this idea was used was in the early 1960s when crime was increasing drastically and in the late 1960s the ghetto riots took place, opening the eyes of those responsible to the need to change something. , and change quickly to prevent criminal activity and chaos. During the 1970s, the primary focus of law enforcement shifted to crime prevention and law enforcement programs. Police programs can be found at almost every college and school in the United States. In 1968, Congress passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, which involved the creation of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA). The ...... middle of paper ......g alongside the community and to achieve this successfully you must have an open mind and not let your own beliefs interfere with the main goal of the maintaining order. . In college you learn a lot about life and being in a small "community" with many different people that you accept at the end of your college experience. One of the weaknesses of the article is that most of the research done is outdated and now irrelevant to today's world. The number of people earning a high school diploma doubled between 1960 and 2004, and the number of people earning a college degree more than tripled during the same period (Walker & Katz, 2011, p. 126). In conclusion, I believe that having a higher education in law enforcement will be significantly beneficial when it comes to preventing and fighting crime in such diverse communities across the United States..