Mayor Anthony Williams is asking the D.C. Council to give hundreds of police officers a break from a requirement that they attend college.
Six years ago, the council adopted a law requiring all new police hires to have accumulated 60 semester hours of college credit before being handed a badge and gun. The law took effect in 2004, with the caveat that any officer hired between Jan. 11, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2003, complete the same college credit by January 2009.
Williams is now seeking to repeal the caveat.
The goal was to get already-appointed officers as much extra training as possible, said Vince Morris, the mayor’s spokesman. But mandating college education as a condition of employment simply wasn’t realistic given officers’ schedules, he said.
Council Member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the judiciary committee, said the council has no choice but to support the bill. For example, an officer called away from class at the University of the District of Columbia to work six days a week during a crime emergency could suddenly find his job on the line, Mendelson said.
A police department spokesman said 936 new officers were hired between 2000 and 2003. But it is unknown how many have yet to complete the college requirement.
