The Riley County Law Board approved an update to the Riley County Police Department promotion policies.
RCPD Director Dennis Butler discussed the need for higher educational requirements for the rank of Captain in the department.
Butler said he started his career without a college degree, but the degree requirement reflects the expectations of today’s officers and the public.
He said that the majority of personnel he has hired for both policing and corrections come to the department with a college degree of some kind.
“In today’s policing it’s not a stretch to think that someone coming with that level of education would expect the same of their leaders and aspire to those positions to themselves,” Butler said. He told the board that several officers he has hired at the line level come to the job with master’s degrees
Two of the department’s five captains have master’s degrees and one officer at the position does not have a bachelor’s degree. Butler said that officer complied with promotion requirements at the time and would not be mandated to obtain the degree “after the fact.”
The new policy comes with something of a grandfather clause for current RCPD personnel. Current lieutenants can be promoted to rank of captain without a bachelor’s degree, and the department gives them five years to earn their degree.
Policy drafts began in April of this year and were distributed to staff for commentary. Butler said that the new educational requirements were not met with “wholesale endorsement” by the department.
Board member Linda Morse noted that RCPD was the first department in Kansas to achieve certification from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.
“Our police department has always had high standards,” she said. “It’s important to continue to have those standards.”