College to offer new course designed to reflect the nature of modern policing

Nov. 13, 2012 - PRLog -- Coventry University College is to introduce a new BA (Hons) degree course in Policing next year.

The course is aimed primarily at serving police officers who may need an academic qualification to help with promotion prospects. However, it may also appeal to Specials and Community Support Officers who may want a full-time career within the force.

It is already a requirement in some police forces that officers possess a degree or equivalent qualification.

The course will start in January as a part-time only degree but will be offered as a full-time degree course the following September.

Course Director and Head of Law at Coventry University College, George Ellison said:

“There is little or no recruitment happening within the police force at the moment and when forces do start to recruit, they will be looking for people who not only have the right attitude for the role, but also have academic qualifications in a relevant subject as well. The higher up the ladder a serving officer wants to go within the force, the better qualified they must become and police forces will be looking towards institutions like Coventry University College to provide the courses.”

The course has been developed by George Ellison. His ethos is to make it as topical as possible covering all aspects of policing including an emphasis on neighbourhood policing which will focus on issues a police officer would face on a daily basis:

“We have to realise that policing has changed a great deal over the years,” said George Ellison. “When you are policing a community, you have to be aware of all aspects from dealing with people with mental health issues, to families with autistic children to domestic violence situations – all of which happen in society every day.

“A police officer who is first on the scene at an incident will need to make a judgement call straight away to assess a situation. In some cases they handle there is no specific training, it is usually something that is learned on the job or comes with experience.”

Using his own experience as a former police officer and enlisting the help of former colleagues from the force, the Policing BA course will focus on the day- to- day scenarios that police officers are faced with for which there has previously been no specific training.

The team delivering the course at Coventry University College will be made up of academics and ex-police officers who have worked in various fields of policing and come from different ranks and bring a wealth of experience with them.

The course will also be flexible and move with the demands that modern policing faces: how to deal with riot situations, community issues, race-hate crimes, policing tactics for crowd control and how policing has changed over the decades and why we police in the way we do?

The course would appeal to serving police officers who want to get an academic qualification or to anyone wishing to join the force with a relevant degree that would give them a head start with the theory behind policing and the social issues currently faced by the modern police offer.

For more information about the course, which starts in January 2013 please contact George Ellison on 024 7765 8787or alternatively email George at law@cuc.coventry.ac.uk

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