Police Corruption In Australia

Reputation and public distrust for the police has certainly been a problem in Australia and the rest of the world for many years. This is not a new problem by any means, but even in recent years, it is still at a level of crises. A Brisbane Times article by Mitchell-Whittington claimed that there were one thousand corruption allegations in a three-month period in 2017 (2017). As early as the 1900s, police have looked at tertiary education, as a way out of police corruption and minimization of public incidents, “Educating police officers beyond a high school diploma has been a focal point of discussions about police since the beginning of the professional reform movement in the early 1900s” (Paoline & Terrill, 2007 P.1). The Fitzgerald inquiry

in Australia the 1980s brought even more scrutiny to police education (Fitzgerald, 1989). This essay will begin by looking at current education requirements for police officers in Queensland, Australia. This essay will then look at what tertiary education is and argue that tertiary education should be compulsory for all Queensland police officers. This essay will look at research in key areas of policing such as use of force, academy performance and corruption. It will then be argued that tertiary education in the police service would improve various aspects of these keys areas. Consequently, the police service would see and improvement in public trust and overall reputation.