Abstract

In its relatively short existence the idea of homeland security has grown to dominate the national security strategy, a planning device that includes municipal law enforcement capabilities. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, growing demographic diversity and a general realization of professional ethics saw the end of the city-centric mission for municipal law enforcement agencies. As law enforcement agencies struggled to change from a reactive performance model to a proactive performance model, the need for a better trained law enforcement officer was apparent to municipal administrators and academia alike.

The purpose of this paper was to study the degree to which community colleges (CCs) have or can provide training to law enforcement personnel. A review of the literature on law enforcement training has shown that even as the CCs have traditionally been part of the training experience for the law enforcement community, their impact on training has been relatively omitted from comprehensive research on law enforcement training. By illustrating how national policy changes have impacted law enforcement training requirements within the last decade this paper will explain the impact of the CCs on law enforcement training. Lastly, this paper points to the potential CCs have on homeland security practitioners, specifically the training of municipal law enforcement personnel.

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