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.