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Psychology courses at KNPU emphasize mental illnesses that can affect criminal behavior. Cyber and internet crime are examined in computer science courses. Science courses examine forensic evidence such as fingerprints, DNA, and biometrics. Accounting courses deal with fraud and white-collar crime. There are also compulsory courses in police administration, criminal law, and ethics. The students must be proficient in at least one foreign language.
When I taught at KNPU, all students were fluent in English, but some students had difficulty understanding my southern American dialect. Students must excel in self-defense skills and handling firearms. Interestingly, KNPU students are taught to aim below the waist to incapacitate – not kill – the suspect. In our country, officers are trained to target a suspect’s torso.
The physical facility at KNPU meets the highest standards of our four-year colleges. The classrooms are high tech. Sports hall, billiards, track and shooting range are the finest. The dorms and meals are superb. The KNPU is not only respected for students, the university attracts top-class professors and lecturers and pays very good salaries to all employees.
South Korea has the advantage that the students have a national police force after graduation. There are hundreds and hundreds of different police departments in our country. If we wanted to set up a national police academy, we would have to award a certain number of scholarships for each state. We could also set up national police academies by region of the country – for example, the United States National Police Academy in Atlanta.
A national police academy will not address all police reform concerns, and it could be many years before graduates return to their home states before we see an impact on police culture. But as we work to attract bright young people to careers in the military, we should show the same commitment to police service in our communities.
J. Tom Morgan teaches criminal law and ethics undergraduate students at Western Carolina University. He is a retired DeKalb County district attorney.
