It wasn’t a degree that made me into a good policeman

THE College of Policing has ruled that, from next year, candidates will need a degree to be a police constable.

I was a graduate in 1974 when I went to the district police training centre. I soon realised that the other candidates, who had left school at 16, were streets ahead of me and my degree was irrelevant.

In the practical exercises, the former cadets were superb while I was a laughing stock — and rightly so. Fortunately for me, the weekly exam was all that counted and I came second in my class.

Had the new regime been in place in 1974, none of the other candidates, many of them better than I then was, would have been able to join the police service.

The best thief-taker I worked with was a detective sergeant who taught me far more about policing than I learned in a classroom.

The finest police officer this country has ever produced was ‘Nipper’ Read, known for leading the team who brought down the Kray twins. Under the College of Policing’s inflexible criteria, he would not have made it through the initial paper sift.

This new move will be rightly celebrated by career criminals, but should be a cause of grave concern to the rest of us.

Of course, there is a place for graduates in the police service, but insisting there isn’t room for anyone else is dogmatic, bone-headed and flies in the face of common sense.

The College of Policing should think again. COLIN MacDONALD, Nottingham. DID the unarmed policemen who tackled the London Bridge terrorists have degrees?

R. McGAHAN, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear.