I’m not saying the theory is not important - I just don’t see how years of theoretical study is warranted
I’m not saying we need 10+ years of study, but at least a bachelors focused on civics and humane treatment + a psych evaluation would do wonders to clearing out abusers.
Being a street cop is not.
But if you hire an untrained one, or one that only learned on the job, you'll have a way, way worse end result than if you hire a formed one (or it will take trice the time and double the materials, if I listen to my father's stories). Two years is enough for low-level workers, i'd guess 3 to 4 should do the work for the police (considering it's 6 to 8 years and a masterwork for compagnons, pro woodworkers/upholsterers would still be better trained than police).
Cops in pretty much any developed country go through one to four years of training. Most give trainees extra points for related studies, like law or criminology. South Korea, for example, has a police university.
Then you have places like the US, where training plus probation time is, on average, less than a year.
I’m not saying that it would make US police necessarily better, but it is clear that they need better, harder, and more comprehensive training, given the current state of affairs.
My main gripe is that over the last 40 years we have worked hard to force people to get college degrees even for work were on the job training produce more competent individuals.
I don't know about others professions a lot since I only met a US woodworkers/carpenter, but I'm pretty sure others would be a bit ashamed comparing an out-of school French/Swiss compagnon to any woodworker with less than 30 years of experience. The one I met was ashamed that an formed upholsterer was more precise and knew more about angles than him, despite him being 24 years older (and at that time, my father wasn't working in construction at all).
In fact, considering the number of 'X-doing American react to X in Europe' video, you might find one showing exactly how your carpenters aren't that good (or at least, those working in WV/Ohio, the US is a big country).
Fact is policing in the 21st century is 1/3 social worker, 1/3 law enforcement, and 1/3 procedural red-tape (give or take). It takes a lot of training to do all three effectively. And we, as a nation, don’t require a whole heck of a lot of training.
Cops are expected to be able to descalate situations, identify suspicious situations, in theory behave in accordancd with the rule of law and limitations on police force, and much more. These all seem like things that could be in a degree program.