Hello Sai Prakash,

Most aspiring law enforcement officers major in criminal justice, but there’s an argument that just about any degree field is useful.

My undergrad degree was in molecular biology. I later got a master’s degree in criminal justice, but I had been a cop for about seven years when I started that program. Later on, I taught criminal justice for eight years. I found that most students with no police experience didn’t grasp the concepts well, and didn’t understand the priorities and necessities of learning them.

For example, if you’ve never been standing at the side of the road on a traffic stop, asking yourself, “Does existing case law allow me to search the trunk of this car, given the probable cause I have at this moment?” you’re not going to grasp the importance of having a good knowledge of search and seizure laws. I think most of my students saw the cases I was teaching as just boring drivel they had to memorize and regurgitate back during the exam, to be forgotten later.

The more useful aspects of my undergrad education as it applied to policing was in communication skills. I was a pretty good writer and speaker, and those skills served me well as a police officer. Some of my academy classmates had CJ degrees, and I didn’t notice that they were any more knowledgeable of practical skills than anyone else, including me.

Just about any degree program that includes a lot of reading, expositive writing, and critical thinking is good preparation for a law enforcement career. Most liberal arts fields (English, history, philosophy, psychology, etc.) meet this requirement. Knowledge of a foreign language is useful, especially if you are fluent in that language, not just academically proficient. I found my science education occasionally useful, although the study skills I developed while acquiring it more so.

I suggest studying in an area that interests you, as that will encourage you to perform better academically. You’ll learn the basic skills and knowledge necessary to be a police officer in the police academy, providing you have preparation to learn them.

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Hope this helps...

Thank you and all the best...