Police trainees study on the beat

From September 2004, new police probationers joining Cleveland Constabulary will start a two year Foundation Degree in Police Studies at the University of Teesside.

The two year course combines practical on the beat training with rigorous academic work and is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.

Designed to meet the needs of professional policing in the 21st Century, the Foundation Degree aims to make trainees ‘fully rounded’ police officers, according to Colin Dunnighan, Director of the University’s Centre for Applied Socio-Legal Studies (CASLS) and a former Detective Inspector with Durham Constabulary.

Around 100 recruits will enrol on the foundation degree each year, initially for the next five years. The course has been developed jointly by Cleveland Police and the University’s specialist centre, which has a strong track record in proving part-time education for serving police officers and other law enforcement agencies.

A Cleveland Police spokesman said: “We are the first in the country to get through the validation process. Kent is closely behind – but we will be the first to be up and running and awarding our students foundation degrees. Officers will spend equal time within the University and Force, training in the areas they will eventually police and they will be assessed for both academic and practical skills.

“The public want their officers to know about the communities they will police and among the benefits of this ground-breaking course is that it gives probationers the chance to interact, mix and learn with other students.”

Mr Dunnighan said four experienced officers from the Cleveland Force will help deliver the more practical aspects of police training, adding: “The University will provide an academic context to the work the trainees will be doing. They are still being trained as police officers and the academic work complements that training.

“The University work will be intensive, giving new recruits a broader prospective into the problems and issues they are likely to face on the streets - such as undertaking an arrest. This training will result in ‘fully rounded’ police officers, who can see the bigger picture of what’s going on in the world. The course gives the University an external influence into good practice and the opportunity to affect the future behaviour of police officers and helping to produce officers that the Force and the public can be proud of.”

Subjects will include law, criminology and forensics, with some of the forensics element delivered in the University’s special 16-room `crime scene house` on campus, where crime scenes are simulated to giving students the chance to undertake their own forensic investigations.

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