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New APS Police Officers Have Above-Average Education Levels

August 4th, 2016

Atlanta Public Schools students are back in school this week, and with them, a brand new police force. Most of the nearly 70 officers have bachelor’s degrees. APS went out of its way to recruit officers with above-average educational backgrounds.

APS Police Chief Ronald Applin said they were looking for people with degrees.

“You know, not to say that we’re better,” Applin said. “We can be more selective. We’re a smaller agency, but we’re also focusing on a different segment of the population.”

He said he thinks recruits’ desires to work with kids and to be a part of a totally new department were behind the large pool of applicants – 500 people for 67 spots. There was another, big motivator: starting salary.

“The range was between $45,000 and $65,000 a year,” said Applin.

On average, that’s $12,000 more than what the city of Atlanta offers candidates with four years of college. Applin says many Atlanta Police Department officers, as well as Fulton and DeKalb County police, applied to be part of his new school force.

Frank Rotondo with the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police said there’s not a lot of data on how more educated law enforcement operates differently, but both he and Applin believe college doesn’t hurt.

“An officer going for an undergraduate degree prior to being an officer, he may be going with people who aspire to be psychologists, educators,” Rotondo said.

Major Stacie Gibbs works in recruitment for Atlanta’s police department. The APS salaries aren’t feasible for her 2,000-officer department.

“We can’t offer to raise the salary for a department this large,” Gibbs said. “You know what that takes. We’ve got a city budget to look at.”

She said they don’t specifically target college-educated recruits. Over her career, Gibbs said she hasn’t seen any tendency for more-educated recruits to make better officers. She said she focuses on finding people who really want to do police work.