Recently, Derrick Jacobs was interviewed by CNN during coverage of the Charlotte, North Carolina, protests over police brutality, and during the interview, Jacobs said that he was required to have more hours of training to become a barber than police were required to have in order to join the force.
Not only was Jacobs right about the number of hours required for each type of job but other states, such as California, New Mexico and New York, also have the same disparity in hour requirements. And while police departments often choose to push for more hours beyond the state’s minimum requirement, it’s interesting to note just how little experience is required for some of these states to put people out on the streets in uniform.
In North Carolina, for example, police are required to have 620 hours of training, while barbers are required to have 1,528 hours, backing up Jacob’s claim.
California officers are required to go through 664 hours of academy training and then 14 weeks of field training. To be a licensed cosmologist there, you need 1,600 hours.
And Louisiana, which has the lowest hourly requirements for police training, asks for 360 hours of training for police officers. In that same state, licensed manicurists must have 500 hours.
Check out more of the CNN report here.