Can you become a police officer without a college degree? I get asked this question all time while on patrol by different people who are interested in law enforcement. My response is "yes" and "no" depending on the department you're interested in. There's no question in my mind that a person can become a great police officer without a college degree. You see police work is more about common sense than anything else. If you have good communication skills and are able to digest information relatively quickly, then you can be good police officer. Period!
With that being said I must warn you that there are a few police departments out there (but not many) that require at least a 2 year college degree or a military background before you can apply. But the majority only require that you be at least 21, clean record, possess high character with good reputation, and a high school diploma.
Base on my experience as a veteran police officer, you don't need a college degree to be an effective cop. But you must realize though that having one does in fact make you look more attractive to the hiring board. But than again if you perform poorly on your oral board interview it won't matter if you have a college degree or not. You see the hiring panel put more emphasis on the oral board interview. Even a college degree cannot undo a poor performance in that case.
In conclusion if you want to become a cop and college is not something you want to do, I would suggest that you focus all your attention on preparing for the oral board interview. Trust me it would be well worth it as you can literally leap frog the competition with a great interview.
So whether you're preparing for your first Police Oral Interview or you're retaking it after you were eliminated the first time around, you need to get prepared. And the best way to do this is to get a comprehensive list of the most commonly asked police interview questions and answers found here: http://www.PoliceOralBoardInterviewSecrets.com
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