Police Officer in 1812: Vidocq founds the Sûreté

What are the nine principles of policing? A set of guidelines commonly credited to Robert Peel but most likely written by London's first police commissioners, Charles Rowan and Richard Mayne, in 1829. They hold that police exist to prevent crime, depend on public approval, and use only the minimum necessary force — summarized in the line "the police are the public and the public are the police."

Do you need a college degree to become a police officer? In most countries, no. The United States and many others require only a high-school diploma plus academy training, though England and Wales moved to a degree-linked entry route in 2020, and countries such as Germany and France run separate, more selective university tracks for command-level officers.

How long is police academy training? It varies hugely. US academies typically run five to eight months, followed by weeks of supervised field training. Germany and Japan combine academy and practical training over two to three years, reflecting a civil-service model that treats initial training as the start of a longer formal credentialing process, not the end of it.