Critics decry move to eliminate college requirement for city cops

Walter Zdunowski and James McNesby served their country as soldiers, busted drug dealers as cops and now work in academia - Zdunowski as a criminal justice professor and McNesby as director of public safety and security at Gwynedd Mercy University in Montgomery County.

Given their backgrounds - which include being the first in their families to graduate from college - it's little wonder they're ready to do battle over the Philadelphia Police Department's plan to end the requirement that recruits must have earned 60 college credits.

Zdunowski and McNesby, a former adjunct professor, say they cannot begin to comprehend why police Commissioner Richard Ross wants to toss the college requirement, which was instituted by former Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey in 2012 to raise the standards for police officers. In seeking to reverse it, Ross says eliminating the requirement would help expand the pool of applicants.

Sitting with McNesby in the Lincoln Library on the campus 25 miles northwest of Center City, Zdunowski described Ross' plan to nix the college requirement as "dangerous" and a "sin."

A police officer's reality - fighting crime and leading investigations - requires critical thinking, including the important decision of when to use deadly force, and cries out for a higher education standard than high school, he said.

"Every profession that I know - engineering, doctors, nurses, lawyers, probation officers - are all required to have a bachelor's degree. All of them," Zdunowski said. "If we want to be considered a profession, we've got to be educated."

McNesby, who was raised in Kensington and fought as a Marine in the Vietnam War, said Ross should work harder at recruitment, especially reaching out to military veterans, before dropping the education bar. (Recruits with six months of military service are exempt from the college requirement.)

"Education gives you a more mature individual, a more understanding individual that serves the public," he said.

But Ross' plan to end the college requirement is moving briskly.

On Friday, the city's three-member Administrative Board, which includes Mayor Kenney, approved the commissioner's request to drop the college requirement and raise from 19 to 22 the age at which new officers can be hired.

The earliest the changes can take effect is 30 days after the vote. Before that, anyone with concerns may file a written request with the city Department of Records asking for a public hearing, according to the city charter.

The mayor, for his part, said college is too expensive for many would-be police recruits. He also said the requirement is fueling a shortage of police officers and is making it difficult to diversify the department.

"College is unbelievably expensive and people are choosing not to go to college because they can't afford it and they don't want to go into debt for $100,000, so we have to look at the realities of our situation," Kenney said.

He added: "We have a situation where we have a very diverse community, and the department is not as diverse as we'd like it."

The department's budget for fiscal year 2017 has funding for 6,525 officers, but - in part because of recruiting challenges, officials say - there are only about 6,100 officers on the force.

Ross, who was appointed by Kenney in January, said while the college requirement is laudible, it is blocking his ability to hire enough new officers.

"We've got to get boots on the ground more so than any other crime strategy," he said of the officer shortage, which he estimated to be the worst in 22 years.

In addition to Mayor Kenney's support, Ross has won the required approval of the Civil Service Commission, and endorsements from the leaders of the police union and the Police Advisory Commission.

Zdunowski isn't buy it.

A U.S. Army veteran who grew up in a rough part of Reading, Zudunowski said he feels so strongly that he's considering launching a petition drive to challenge the proposed change.

"I think you're going to put the community in danger," he said. "The job is to protect and to serve. But how are you going do that if you have not been educated?"

Zdunowski's 28-year career included time with the Pennsylvania State Police, the Montgomery County Detective Bureau and the federal government.

McNesby spent 24 years with the Philadelphia Police Department, the last 12 as a homicide detective.

Although both earned criminal justice degrees during their crime-fighting days and master's degrees after retiring, the two men did not always feel so strongly that cops should be college educated.

"Back in the day, we used to badmouth some of the kids who came from college verses us guys that had a lot of street experience," Zdunowski said, chuckling.

"We had street smarts plus military smarts. We used to say, 'They don't know as much as us.' That was the argument back then. I don't think it's the argument today."

deanm@phillynews.com

215-854-4172 @mensahdean