Cities hope to attract more police officers by cutting education requirements

Source: USA Today

Aug. 10, 2025, 6:01 a.m. ET


The Dallas Police Department had been shrinking for years, losing more officers than they hired ‒ and competition for recruits was fierce. Then the hiring woes got even more dire in the fall of 2024, when voters passed a proposition that required the force have at least 4,000 officers, hundreds more than it had even at its peak in 2010.

So the department tried a new recruiting strategy: Make it easier to hire by dropping the requirement that applicants have college credits under their belt. Dallas isn't alone. It's among a number cities to relax college education hiring requirements for officers, a yearslong trend that includes Chicago, Memphis, Louisville, and New Orleans.

The changes bring the cities back in alignment with much of the nation. More than 80% - of law enforcement agencies only require a high school diploma to be hired, according to a 2017 survey of nearly 1,000 departments nationwide. “In a perfect world, would you want police officers to be college educated? Absolutely, but this is where policing is now,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “There simply is more demand for police officers - for qualified police officers - than there is a supply.”

Research has found there are some benefits to stricter standards: college-educated officers tend to use less force, have fewer complaints against them and write better reports. But some police researchers say these findings aren't definitive and relaxing education requirements can make the job accessible to more Americans amid the rising cost of college.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/08/10/police-jobs-college-requirements/85324780007/